LESLIE: Brian in Utah’s got some cracks in the stucco. Tell us about them.
BRIAN: My house was built about three years ago in northern Utah and last winter I noticed a very, very large crack on the side of the stucco. I’m guessing it’s from the (INAUDIBLE) melting, running down. I’m wondering what I can do to solve that problem.
TOM: Well, if you have cracks in the stucco, what you’re going to have to do is seal them and the best thing to do to seal them is to use a very flexible caulk; like a flowable urethane or a silicone. If you slow the water from getting in there that’s going to prevent it from freezing and loosening up and sort of bursting off more sections of it.
BRIAN: Is that paintable caulk or is it more of a silicone type?
TOM: Well, if you use a silicone it’s not going to paintable but if you use an acrylic latex it will be paintable.
BRIAN: OK, then [it’s matched with] (ph) my existing stucco color?
TOM: Yes, and you can actually tint it. Actually, Red Devil has one where you can be tinted to match exactly the stucco color or you could choose one if it happens to be close to a standard color.
BRIAN: OK, then how do I prevent it from continuing? How would you suggest?
TOM: What exactly is happening that’s causing the crack to occur?
BRIAN: Well, it’s right over the – [I’m not sure what to call it] (ph) – the roof line comes down to the where it drains down to the stucco pillar?
TOM: OK.
BRIAN: Sort of meets in the valley there on the roof line.
TOM: Alright. Can you use a diverter on the roof? And what a diverter is a piece of flashing that’s attached to the roof flat that moves that wash of water away from the place where it’s overflowing.
BRIAN: Yeah, I could probably look into that. Sure.
TOM: Yeah. Something like a diverter is a good solution for that situation.
BRIAN: And where would I find something like that?
TOM: Oh, you would make it yourself. You’d pick up a piece of like aluminum angle and you would attach it to the roof with a bead of caulk between it and the roof and then – we use this very often over front doors where the actual water’s coming through and falling over the front door and you don’t want that to happen so you put an aluminum diverter above it. The water comes down; the roof hits the diverter and runs off to the side. And that’ll solve the problem.
BRIAN: OK, I’ll try that out then. Thanks for all your help.
TOM: You’re welcome, Brian. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.
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