Stucco repair costs in Toledo

The ground under Toledo holds water. A University of Toledo county profile describes Lucas County as typically flat, with poor natural drainage and heavy, impermeable soils left behind by the glaciers. That flat ground once made much of northwest Ohio into the Black Swamp, until it was drained artificially in the late 1800s and turned into farmland.

For a stucco house, wet ground is a slow, steady problem. When rain and snowmelt can't soak away, they sit along the foundation, and the bottom of the wall stays damp far longer than the top. Downspouts that empty right at the wall only add to the puddle.

Plenty of Toledo houses have been through decades of those wet springs. Census numbers put about 31 percent of the city's homes as built before 1940, and the median home in the city dates to 1955.

The profile notes one break Toledo does get. The city averages about 37 inches of snow a year, and it's spared the lake-effect winter weather the Great Lakes region is known for. Less snow piled against the walls means less meltwater soaking the same low spots.