Stucco repair costs in Rochester

Freezing rain started falling across the western part of the state on March 3, 1991, and kept going into the next morning. Ice built up one to two inches thick in the hardest-hit areas. It brought down trees, power lines and utility poles, and the weather service logged numerous reports of structural damage from the weight of the ice alone. Rochester schools stayed closed the whole week. The weather service called it the costliest natural disaster in the state's history.

Ice storms damage stucco indirectly. A falling limb gouges the wall. A gutter torn loose dumps water down the face. Ice sits against the bottom of the wall for days. A gouge or a soaked corner is a small fix in May. Left through a winter, it lets water into the lath behind it.

In a preservation district, swapping materials is a real conversation. In 2024 the city's Preservation Board heard a request to replace the existing stucco on a multifamily house on Vick Park A, in the East Avenue Preservation District, with EIFS, a foam-backed system that mimics stucco. It came before the board as an application for a Certificate of Appropriateness. If you're thinking about trading old stucco for something newer in a district like that, expect the same kind of hearing.