Removing stucco is the only time you get to see what forty years of Fraser Valley rain has done to your wall. We’d rather you see it too.
Two reasons come up over and over, and they’re different problems.
The first is the wall behind it. A traditional stucco wall is face-sealed. The idea was to keep every drop of water out. It works until it doesn’t, and then there’s no way for the water that got in to get back out. That’s what caused BC’s leaky condo crisis. Thousands of Lower Mainland homes and buildings from the 1980s and 1990s took on water they couldn’t shed.
The province’s answer was to require a drained cavity behind the cladding, which the BC Building Code made mandatory across coastal regions in 2006.Detached houses in Cloverdale, Newton and Fleetwood didn’t make the news, but a lot of them were built in the same years using the same face-sealed approach.
The second is that they’re tired of it. Cracking. Patch repairs that never match. Colour that’s gone chalky. And for anyone with EIFS, the foam-backed system, there’s the woodpecker problem. Northern Flickers will drill straight through that surface, because the foam underneath makes an ideal nesting cavity. They’re protected under the BC Wildlife Act and the federal Migratory Birds Convention Act, so you can’t remove them. You can remove the reason they’re interested.
This is a bigger job than a siding swap, and we’d rather you hear that from us on day one than find out on day three.
We install both and we don’t have a favourite.
James Hardie fibre cement is the more common choice for stucco conversions in this area, partly because the look sits closer to what people are replacing. It holds its shape, doesn’t rot, and keeps paint for a long time. You can also get it with a factory ColorPlus finish. It costs more and it’s heavier and slower to install.
Vinyl costs meaningfully less, needs essentially no maintenance, and installs faster. It’s lighter on the wall. The trade-off is a less substantial look up close, and it can be damaged by impact.
For reference, a 2,500 square foot home runs from about $25,000 with vinyl lap siding to about $37,000 with fibre cement lap siding. Stucco removal and disposal is additional, because it varies with the type of stucco, the number of storeys, and access around the house. We quote it after we’ve seen the property.
We also install engineered wood and cedar if the look matters more than the maintenance schedule. Gus’s rule from day one has been to recommend based on your goals and budget rather than pushing one product, and that hasn’t changed.
Here’s something worth asking every contractor you talk to.
When stucco comes off, the flashing around your windows comes off with it. That flashing has to be rebuilt, and it has to tie correctly into the new weather barrier. If a crew reinstalls cladding over an old, damaged, or wrongly-lapped window detail, you’ve paid for a new wall with the original leak still in it.
This is also the one and only time it makes sense to replace your windows, because the opening is fully accessible from the outside and the new flashing can be integrated properly from the start. We install windows only when they’re bundled with a siding replacement, for exactly this reason. We won’t quote windows as a standalone job.
If your windows are staying, we still rebuild the flashing. That’s not an upsell line item, it’s part of doing the wall correctly.
A stucco conversion is a five-figure project where most of the value is in work you’ll never see again once the siding goes on. We built our terms around that problem.
We’re WorkSafeBC registered under clearance number C136733062, carry $2,000,000 in general liability insurance, and are BBB Accredited. We’re based at 19340 65 Ave in Cloverdale and work across Surrey, White Rock, South Surrey, Langley, Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows.
Book a free assessment and we’ll walk the house with you, talk through what’s likely behind that wall, and give you a straight number. Call 604-603-0257 or email info@micasaexteriors.ca. No deposit, and no pressure.
A 2,500 square foot home runs from about $25,000 with vinyl lap siding to about $37,000 with fibre cement lap siding. Stucco removal and disposal is quoted on top of that, since it depends on stucco type, home height and site access. We’ll give you a firm number after walking the property, and the estimate is free.
We don’t recommend it and we generally won’t do it. Leaving the stucco on traps the existing wall assembly and any moisture already in it, and you lose the one chance to inspect and repair what’s underneath. The value of this project is in rebuilding the wall properly, not just changing the surface.
Longer than a standard re-side, because removal and disposal are their own phase and repairs are common once the wall is open. We give you a range after the assessment rather than a fixed date, and if we find damage that extends the timeline we tell you the same day we find it.
Often, yes, especially on homes built before 2006 when rainscreen construction became required across coastal BC. It’s usually contained around windows, at the base of walls, and at deck connections. We include sheathing repairs of up to 100 square feet in full replacement estimates and show you photos of anything we find.
Not necessarily, but this is the only time it’s straightforward to do it. When the stucco comes off, the window flashing has to be rebuilt regardless. If the windows are staying, we redo the flashing around them. We install new windows only as part of a siding replacement, never as a standalone job.
It removes what attracts them. Northern Flickers target EIFS and foam-backed stucco because the material makes an easy nesting cavity, and they also drill into walls where insects have moved in behind damp wood. Replacing the assembly with a drained, dry wall and solid cladding takes both away. They’re a protected species, so prevention is the only legal option.
Yes. We cover Surrey, White Rock, South Surrey, Langley, Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows out of our Cloverdale shop. Call 604-603-0257 with your address and we’ll book an assessment.
