my mom's commercial building--another suggested repair approach

[Guest guest]

This is what a contractor who did a nice job on my mom's house said

about the building that the other contractor suggested hardy board for....

any views on this approach, i personally don't like the idea of

styrofoam, but....

The front

and the side facing the main street have been remodeled at some point.

Since the

entire building is concrete block it appears that those two sides have been

furred out with wood strips and a 1/4 " stucco board look siding was poorly

applied to it and rapidly deteriating. The upper section with the tenants

signage that runs the length of the building is furred out even further and

appears to have some real dry rot issues that were obviously covered

over with

paint. My suggestion is that those two sides be stripped down to the concrete

block and then apply the modern day verson of stucco. Which consists of

a layer

of styrfoam backing, a cement based finish coat and then the final

spray coat of

the colored stucco finish. This option I think is the most versatile for this

application, given the age of the building and will be the most

cost effective

way to achieve a  ultra low maintenance exterior finish. 

besides trying to understand healthy & good construction approaches,

what amazes me is this guy is saying the building needs $40-50K of work,

while a year ago he took a careful look and came up with $15K of needed

repairs vs. the hardy board contractor suggesting a few thousand dollars

of repairs....

sue v.