Inspecting Stucco on Old Homes

The more I see old stucco installations in our area, the less I like them. There's a reason why we developed rules for things like casing beads, weep screeds, and proper sealant joints - because the venerable old ways rarely worked well. When we come across a 100 year old house with its original hardcoat stucco intact (which is rare, by the way, most of them have been extensively repaired), we're looking at an exercise in survivor bias - the rare exceptions. What we should be doing is cataloging the 100-year old houses where the stucco has been replaced or extensively repaired, and we should be looking at why that happened. Doing so gives you a leg up on inspecting the seemingly unscathed ones. That said, I inspect them as I would anything else: applying my knowledge as far as it will go and refer to someone else to go farther when I think it's necessary.

source https://www.inspectorsjournal.com/topic/18781-inspecting-stucco-on-old-homes/?do=findComment&comment=171934