RAM Exteriors is a division of RAM Builders that can either provide all the components of your home's exterior or, if you prefer, only the stucco elements of the exterior. This concept was conceived as we repaired homes and found that homes' exteriors were often degrading because subcontractors were either not properly integrating their different applications or were not installing the applications in the proper order.
This difficulty was further complicated because so many different exteriors are now available and because architecture of most homes is much more complex. On a single home you may have as many as eight subcontractors installing the exterior of the home, and the architectural design will require these subcontractors to integrate their work many times.
Contractors have ignored these problems because of a misplaced priority on the cosmetic aspects of home exteriors. The function of a home exterior is to keep the elements from getting inside the home. This important fact has been forgotten or has become secondary to the cosmetic appeal of the exterior. The look of any home is, of course, important and should be emphasized but the protective function of the exterior needs to be understood as equally important.
There are a few simple guidelines that must be followed for a home exterior to effectively protect the home from the elements. First of all, when all of the exterior applications have been installed on a home, there should be a shingle effect from the roof all the way down to the ground. In order to have this shingle effect, the building papers behind the stucco, brick and window, and door flashing must over-lap correctly. These applications should then go up behind the soffit tying into the fascia and the rain gutter. The rain gutter should then be placed underneath the drip edge, the drip edge under the roofing felt, and finally, the shingles should be placed at the top of the exterior package.
This shingle effect is a simple concept but it is lost when a subcontractor gives no consideration to the application that is being installed above or below his own application. Subcontractors will often cut their papers exactly where their stucco, brick or siding ends and will not leave paper for the next subcontractor to tie into. Other problems occur when the exterior is installed out of order. If the soffit goes on before the stucco or brick, the proper overlap cannot occur.
As specialists in remedial repairs since 1987 we understand the importance of this seemingly simple concept. We have employees, and have also developed relationships with other subcontractors, who understand the importance of both the cosmetic appeal of a home and of maintaining the integrity of the shingle effect. RAM Exteriors can provide this expertise to people building new homes.
In addition to our years of experience, RAM Exteriors offers the advantages of using one contractor to provide your entire exterior so that, if you do have a problem, there is only one subcontractor to call. In most cases, when there is a leak or installation problem, each subcontractor blames the other subcontractors and it becomes nearly impossible to resolve the problem. Employing RAM Exteriors to create your entire home exterior means that you only make one phone call to get a price or an answer to any questions that you might have about your exterior. With RAM Exteriors you can also be assured that whether we are installing your roof, stucco, brick, stone, fascia or soffit, it will be done in the proper order, correctly and on time. |
