Watch Out For Falling Rock!

We started taking the stone off the front of the house today. This side has been redone before, some of the studs and the sheathing was replaced. They did a better job than the other side, which still have cedar siding underneath. This took less than 10 minutes to take off, just using my brick hammer, my masonry chisel, and my prybar. Water has been leaking behind the stone, there's no flashing between the stucco and the stone. We're going to be replacing it with cedar clapboard.



An action shot of the stone coming off. Some of it came off in surprisingly large chunks.



The prybar in action.



Here's a picture of some of the rot. I knew it was rotten, not that rotten though. I could break it with my bear hands. I used the sledgehammer to take off the bottom stones that were on the foundation. I dug underneath them, then hit them straight down. I bought 2 sheets of plywood to replace the sheathing, so I'll take off the rest of the stone tomorrow, then put on new sheathing and tar paper. I'm going to wait to put on the siding, until all of the stucco is off. It's not prepped yet anyways, I have to coat it with wood preservative, and prime it on all sides. I have to do the water table as well, so I'll have to go get some more 2x8's and flashing.