Wrap Me Up In Stone

In the nomenclature of the building business the exterior of a house is covered in "cladding". Cladding protects the interior of the house from the elements most notably water. It's like wearing an old cheap raincoat, because like the old rain coat it leaks a little, some kinds more than others. Cladding can be made of wood, stucco or stone just to name a few of the more common types.

Stone houses around Connecticut are not all that unusual. As anyone here who has a garden knows there is enough stone in the ground to build whole towns of full of stone houses. So when I pulled in the driveway and saw this stone house, it didn't strike me as strange.

The first thing that I noticed was the exterior looked newer. The house was listed as being built in the seventies so that didn't jibe with what I was seeing.

Climbing my ladder to inspect the roof I noticed the first sign that this stone exterior was not so solid.  This window was right next to where I was climbing. Notice the cute little plant growing out of the wood window frame at the left. Also the moss and peeling paint. The installer encased the wood window frames in mortar and stone. Worse there did not appear to be any flashings or drainage.

Later when looking at the back of the house I found this cave like pattern on a section of the stone. Very cool looking, but not so good as this cave wall is on the house. This pattern is obviously due to a lot of water running behind the cladding...for a long time! The most interesting thing was the formation of little stalactites from the lime in the mortar leeching out with the water. There has to be a lot of water in order for these cave formations to occur. 

Now why would there be such a great amount of water behind this wall?

The answer was easily found just above. The seam in the gutter was wide open, but that by far is not the only problem.

A masonry veneer wall should be built with a drainage plane between the masonry cladding and house sheathing. The sheathing should be covered with a water resistant material. Tyvek is one of the more common coverings used today. A space of at least one inch must be made between the two surfaces to allow for drainage and drying. Lastly there must be a place for the water to drain from and air to enter to dry the assembly. This is referred to as a weep screed. The weep screed must be at least four inches above an unfinished surface.

Notice that the stone comes right to the ground. What I then noticed was this stone veneer was put right over the original wood siding. No space, no drainage, no flashings.

If there was a perfect example of how not build a stone veneer covering this is it.  

Through all of this my client was completely unfazed by any of this information. Most people would have run away...QUICKLY! In fact this client has never pickup his home inspection report!

Like the old saying goes;

You can not judge a book by its cover. Especially when the cover has been put on wrong.

James Quarello
2010 SNEC-ASHI President
NRSB #8SS0022
JRV Home Inspection Services, LLC

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