Drilling Stucco

[91FE]

Stucco is applied to concrete block most of the time...

Actually, the majority of stucco today (east or west coast) is applied over wood sheathing or extruded foam insulation. It's only put over masonry in retrofit situations...like if you stucco'd an existing brick front row house.

Chances are... you're dealing with 1/2" of stucco over wire lath, building paper and OSB. Just get yourself a regular masonry bit. It'll go through just fine. Switch to a spade bit once you hit the sheathing.

[Jeffrey Schronce]

Joe, I think those Easterners got you all worked over not much!

Any appropriately sized masonry bit in your drill will probably do the deed nicely. There may be some lathe underneath the stucco, so you'll want to have some tin snips available. The masonry bit will go through the sheetrock also.

Make sure you seal it up nicely, when done. Some silicone caulk will do the trick.

JR

Yep, you're right. East coast is pretty much stucco over concrete block. It is very unusual to see stucco over sheathing or tar paper barrier. Given the west coast appliation, I agree that you are 80% to find metal lathe in there, though I am not sure you won't drill right through.
Masonry bit in you 18v will do the job. There are a lot of ways to open up a 1" hole including using a smaller 1/2" which will be less than half the cost, using multiple holes to create a larger 1" hole.

[sbs]

I've lived all over the southeast, midwest, and west coast and the only place I've ever seen stucco over masonry was in FL. It's been over foam or sheathing everywhere else.

[jx67]

Thanks for the advices, everyone. This is truely an amazing forum. Learned a lot in a hurry.

Joe.