The Home Experts, Inc. - Stucco Help

Greater Tampa Bay, Sarasota, Orlando, St Pete, Stucco Inspections andAnswers to Stucco Questions

Continuing Research

We have constructed two four foot by four foot stucco mock ups at our facility. The two mock ups reflect the construction of exterior cladding systems used on most of the second floor walls in Florida. We intend to study the way moisture and water moves in the two exterior cladding systems.

We have inspected the two mock ups with our thermal imagingcamera. The two photographs to the right are from the camera and show the specimens have an even temperature. When we add moisture we will be able to track the moisture movement with our Thermal Imaging Camera, a moisture meter and removable inspection panels in the rear of the specimen. This photograph from our Thermal Imaging Camera shows moisture locations in an exterior wall.

We fitted each mock up with a sealed metal tray. The metal trays are designed to direct water to the interior of the cladding as if there was a driving rain.

9/23/2014, In the first preliminary test of the use of the trays we poured 12 once of water into each tray to monitor how long it would take for the cladding system to accept the water placed in the trays. This created about 1 inch of water depth and hydraulic pressure. After 76 minutes the tray at mock up 2, the mock up on the left was empty while mock up 1 still had about a half inch of water. It took another 84 minutes for the water in the tray at mock up 1 to completely drain. We will allow the samples to dry out and conduct further testing.