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F*O*A*D

On 5/18/14, 12:50 PM, wrote:
On Sun, 18 May 2014 08:17:56 -0400, F*O*A*D wrote:

On 5/17/14, 9:53 PM, wrote:
On Sat, 17 May 2014 20:08:45 -0400, F*O*A*D wrote:

There's really no such thing as a "safe room" in a modern house with
wood stud/drywall walls, light door frames and hollow doors.

Probably true. You should have bought a block home.
My bedroom has block walls on all 4 sides, fire code solid core door.
(used to be the garage)

We don't have a whole lot of concrete block multi-story single family
homes being built around here. For one thing, the usual finish coats of
traditional stucco that you fellas have down south fail up here if any
moisture gets between the stucco and the block, and it always does. When
that happens in a freeze-thaw cycle area, the stucco is prone to
failure. And even if there were block homes as you describe up here, it
isn't likely the interior walls would be block masonry.

Bull****
Stucco is basically the same "parging" they use on the block portion
of virtually every house up there with a basement. The only difference
is they put a pattern in it here and call it stucco. They are both
type "S" mortar with a bonding agent in it. In fact back when I was up
there, parging was just sand and portland with no admix at all.
There was no prep of the wall surface either.

The mix for a parge coat isn't the same as the mix for stucco. The parge
coat also gets a coating of waterproofing tar. Stucco does not. The
parge coat is also mostly underground, where the temps are more stable.

I recall seeing some decades ago houses in different subdivisions within
Reston, Virginia, where the stucco over block failed.
Carpenters were nailing wood strips to the damaged surface to
accommodate T1-11 siding, a cure I am not sure was any better than the
disease.