Home Advice from JRE

reply by: James River Ext. - 04-24-2007 | 10:11PM

The first thing you should do is verify if the Dryvit is the older \"non-drainable\" type or if it is the newer breed of \"drainable\" systems that have been standard on residential construction since around 1999. If it is drainable chances are you don\'t have a problem. If it is non-drainable, you could have an issue if the home was not properly detailed to prevent moisture from entering the wall cavity. This could be the result of improper flashings, failed sealant joints, missing chimney caps, leaking windows, etc. An easy way to tell if it is drainable or not is to look for the existence of a drainage bead or drainage track. This track would encapsulate the end of the insulation board and would be present at the floor line and over the windows and doors. If you do not see these tracks, you would want to contact a Moisture Warranty Corporation approved inspector. The local inspector in Richmond, VA is Burgess Inspections. You can visit the MWC site at www.moisturewarranty.com. An inspector will be able to \"test\" the system and determine if you have moisture behind the walls. In addition an inspector should be able to point out some details that are lacking or inadequate and that could cause some additional issues. Once you have an inspection report, you would contact a company like ours to evaluate the report. Typically the report only offers us a set of context clues to base our opinions and estimates on. At James River, we perform all repair work on a time and materials basis because it is impossible (even with the testing) to completely identify the extent of the damage. The report offers us a better snap shot into what is going on behind the walls than any other method. We base our evaluations on past experience (since 2001 we have probably done approixmately 300 jobs dealing with damage in older systems) and the information provided by these reports. This is not an exact science and we have seen both false positives as wel as areas that appeard to be in good shape actually turn out to be damaged once we started our repairs. You can visit www.dryvithomes.com and print out their maitenance guide but as a general rule there is limited maitenance to a dryvit home. You would expect to have to the sealant need replaced every 5-7 years. This period can be as short as 3 years, but we have also seen sealant last 10 years. This all depends on the amount of UV exposure and the condition and type of sealant used. In addition to replacing the sealant, i would recommend cleaning the dryvit every year. On an English Tudor Home i would check to see if the \"trim\" bands were done in dryvit or if they are still wood. If they are dryvit you won\'t have to paint them or worry about them rotting, but if they are wood and the dryvit is the panel adjacent to the trim bands, you may consider replacing those wood bands with a dryvit band or an alterntaive no-rot material. We have replaced the siding on tudor homes using a combination of hardiplank and pvc as well as dryvit. Please call our office for more information. Thanks for your comments.