[Greenbuilding] (no subject)

[Sacie Lambertson]

Lawrence, write a bit more about EPS 'sopping' up moisture.  This may be the
unexplained source of our wall moisture.  We built a house using specs not
tried before, at least not in our experience.  We were willing participants
in the plan, which as spec'd was a bad one that I could not recommend to
anyone.  But we didn't know---.  Essentially we used thick EPS blocks
surrounded by hardware cloth and rebar which as then coated with stucco,
inside and out.  No felt drain plane between the stucco and the foam. When
we get a blown rain, which here in Kansas is fairly usual, some areas leak
like a sieve, some areas only.

At other times, when it is very cold outside, we get pockets of moisture in
many exterior walls.  This latter I suspect is a moisture condensation
problem not related to the leaking problem.  But in either case I would
appreciate comments and or explanations if there are some good ones.  Wat
John offered a solution to the leaking, one we haven't yet tried because
it's going to be time consuming and more, expensive; instead we've used a
waterproof product to coat the stucco on the outside where it leaks; that
has been a very satisfactory end to the problem, so far.  We recognize that
we may have to do this coat every few years.  But when bad things happen I
really want to understand why.

I would add that our blocks of EPS have masonry wire between each block,
this and the rebar, a vast amount of rebar, serve as conduits for the water
once it penetrates the stucco.  You might imagine how over joyed we are by
the entire system.  Moreover, during the initial phase, it took months of
three excellent carpenter's manual labor to tie the whole thing together.
Sacie L

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