I live in CA where everything is stucco 
Recently I was cleaning my windows outside and made the mistake of stepping on the outside stuccowindowsill to get more reach and it came pulling apart from the exterior of the house. Since it cracked pretty bad, I just pulled it all the way off to discover that it is no more than styrofoam core that is stuccoed.
Now I want to remove all the oranamental windowsills and replace them with wood (painted or stained) anybody done this? Ideas on design, paint or finish? Pictures?
Thanks,
Guy
Replies
Styrofoam? Really?
I've heard of styrofoam being used for ornamental elements, but not quasi-structural things like window sills. Are we soon to have cardboard houses, held together with wasp spit?
I suspect the "right" approach will depend on how the rest of the window frames are constructed. My suggestion would be to post on "Breaktime" over on the FineHomebuilding site, or "breaktime-classic" over on the Delphi forums.
You don't have a stucco house but probably a simulated stucco finish known as EIFS or Exterior Insulated Finishing System. There is nothing particularly wrong with the system if was installed correctly in the first place. EIFS has earned a bad reputation after many contractors incorrectly installed it, allowing water to infiltrate houses resulting in mold problems. It is the installation, not the system that is at fault.
I would seek out the original plans of the house and the window details. I think you may run into more problems trying to install a wood window sill that is not integrated with the rest of the exterior. How will you flash it. How will you seal it at the ends. It is half understood application of the EIFS system that led to many of it's problems so be careful. You may end up with wood sills and moldy gypsum board inside.
Peter
Guy,
I'm not familiar with the building tecnique that is described here, but I recently replaced some finger joined sills that were unpainted for 30 years. Needless to say, they were coming apart. Not wanting to replace them with any sort of wood, my customer asked if they could be laminated with fiberglass. I didn't feel this was a viable solution.
I found that Azek, a basically plastic trim material was available in 5/4 thickness. I cut out one of the sills and milled the Azek to match it's profile in my shop. It was fairly easy to remove the remaining sills...we ended up replacing the trim (which was also finger joined) with the Azek also. It has a 25 year warranty, but if kept painted to protect it from UV I suspect it will last longer.
Peter is correct, it's an EIFS system. The key word being system and that can be a kettle of fish. Simply pulling out what exists and replacing it with wood or a synthetic may not adequately address the way it has been installed and flashed to prevent water from entering the house shell. The problem is that some of these systems were installed incorrectly in the first place. You really need a local contractor that is familiar with this type of treatment to advise you, too many possible complications for a forum.
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