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Finished residential exterior in the San Francisco Bay Area after dry rot repair and siding work by Gadget Construction

Dry Rot, Stucco & Siding Repair Across the Bay Area

Fog, salt air, and wind-driven rain don't stay outside forever. Catch exterior damage early and your home stays watertight for decades. Wait too long and you're rebuilding framing.

Or call (650) 771-5817
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Your Home's First Line of Defense

The Bay Area is one of the hardest climates in the country on a home's exterior. Fog rolls in from the Pacific every afternoon. Coastal moisture settles into every seam. Wind-driven rain hits siding from angles a flat-lot home in Arizona will never see. Salt air eats fasteners and finishes. And most homes here are 50 to 120 years old — built with details that don't meet modern water-management standards.

What starts as a cosmetic issue — a hairline stucco crack, a soft spot near a window sill, paint peeling on one wall — is almost never just cosmetic. Water is getting in somewhere. By the time damage shows up on the outside, framing behind the wall has usually been rotting for months or years. The $800 patch job you should have done two years ago is now a $12,000 sister-framing rebuild.

Gadget Construction treats exterior repair as a systems problem, not a patching job. We find where the water is coming in, cut out every piece of rotted wood, replace framing and sheathing where needed, install proper weather-resistive barrier and flashing, then re-clad with stucco, Hardie board, or wood siding — built to last another 30 years. 12+ years, 500+ projects, 31 Bay Area cities across 6 counties. Licensed Class B (CA #1132983). 5-year workmanship warranty on every repair.

What We Fix

Three connected problems — dry rot, failing stucco, and aging siding — that share a common cause: water getting past your home's exterior. We fix the cause, not just the visible damage.

Dry Rot Repair

Window sills, fascia, trim, sheathing, and framing — we cut out every rotted piece and sister in new pressure-treated or kiln-dried lumber. No paint-over patches that come back in 18 months.

Stucco Patching & Crack Repair

Sealing hairline cracks, spot patching, and color-coat matching on existing stucco walls. Works best when the underlying system is sound.

Full Re-Stucco

Complete removal down to framing, new weather-resistive barrier, wire lath, and a proper three-coat stucco system. The only real fix when stucco has failed behind the surface.

Hardie Board & Fiber Cement Siding

James Hardie installation and replacement — the Bay Area's most durable siding for fog, salt air, and fire zones. Full removal, proper flashing, color-matched finish.

Wood & Cedar Siding

Clapboard, tongue-and-groove, T1-11, cedar shake, and redwood siding — installed or replaced to match your home's architectural style.

Composite & Engineered Siding

LP SmartSide, Diamond Kote, and composite options for homeowners who want wood's look with fiber cement's durability.

Exterior Repair Costs in the Bay Area

Dry Rot Patch (single window sill / trim piece)

Localized repair, no framing replacement

$800–$2,500

Whole-Wall Dry Rot + Framing Replacement

Sister-framing, new sheathing, WRB, flashing

$4,000–$12,000

Stucco Crack Patching & Spot Repair

Color-coat matching on existing stucco

$400–$1,500

Stucco Re-Coat (one elevation)

New color coat over sound existing stucco

$4,000–$9,000

Full Re-Stucco (whole house)

Three-coat system, new WRB and lath

$15,000–$35,000

Hardie Board Siding (per sq ft installed)

Includes removal, flashing, and finish

$14–$22

Wood / Cedar Siding (per sq ft installed)

Clapboard, T1-11, cedar shake, redwood

$10–$16

Prices reflect typical San Francisco market rates. Your exact cost depends on scope, site conditions, materials, and permits. We provide detailed, itemized estimates — no ballpark guesses.

Get Your Exact Price — Free Estimate

Our Process

Our Exterior Repair Process

1

Full Exterior Inspection

We walk the entire envelope of your home — every wall, window, door, fascia, and roof edge. We probe suspect areas for rot and photograph every finding. You get a written report, not a verbal guess.

2

Written Scope & Fixed-Price Estimate

Every repair itemized with a fixed price. No 'allowances' that balloon mid-project. No change orders unless we open a wall and find additional damage you agreed to inspect for.

3

Permits & Scheduling

Full re-stucco and large siding replacements typically trigger a permit in most Bay Area jurisdictions. We pull them. You don't touch a form.

4

Repair & Weatherproofing

We work in the right sequence: remove damage, replace framing and sheathing, install weather-resistive barrier and flashing, then re-clad. Every layer matters — skip one and the next leak is a year away.

5

Final Walkthrough & 5-Year Warranty

We walk the finished work with you. You don't sign off until every punch-list item is done. Every repair is backed by our written 5-year workmanship warranty.

Why Choose Gadget Construction

We Fix the Cause, Not the Symptom

Every exterior repair starts with finding where water is actually getting in. Patch the stucco crack without finding the failed kickout flashing above it, and the damage is back in 18 months. We don't work that way.

Licensed Class B + Full Permit Handling

CA License #1132983. We handle the permit process in SF's DBI, Marin's CDA, Oakland's Planning & Building, and every Peninsula and South Bay jurisdiction we serve. You don't file a single form.

Bay Area-Specific Experience

We know what fog does to Sunset Doelgers, what salt air does to Pacifica homes, what rain-driven wind does to Marin hillside siding. 500+ projects across 31 cities — not generic advice.

5-Year Workmanship Warranty

Every repair, every elevation, every nail. Backed by our written warranty. If something fails, we come back and fix it.

Our Exterior Repair Projects

Exterior Repair project 1

Project Photo 1

Exterior Repair project 2

Project Photo 2

Exterior Repair project 3

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See More of Our Work

Frequently Asked Questions

Dry rot is caused by water and a wood-decaying fungus (Serpula lacrymans and related species). It turns wood soft, spongy, and crumbly — often with visible cracked or cubical patterns. Termite damage usually shows hollow galleries running with the grain, sometimes with mud tubes on the outside. In Bay Area homes, the two frequently occur together: water damage creates softened wood, which termites then exploit. We inspect for both during every exterior repair project and coordinate with licensed pest control if termite treatment is needed before we rebuild.
Small crack patching and localized stucco repair typically do not require a permit. Full re-stucco of one or more elevations, or any work that disturbs the weather-resistive barrier behind the stucco, generally does require a building permit — in SF (DBI), Oakland, Berkeley, and most Peninsula and Marin jurisdictions. We pull permits for every job where they're required and handle all city inspections. If you're unsure, we clarify permit requirements during the estimate.
Costs vary widely by scope. Small dry rot patches (single window sill or piece of trim) typically run $800–$2,500. Whole-wall dry rot with framing replacement runs $4,000–$12,000. Stucco crack patching starts around $400–$1,500. A full re-stucco of one elevation runs $4,000–$9,000; a whole-house re-stucco runs $15,000–$35,000. Hardie board siding averages $14–$22 per square foot installed; wood siding runs $10–$16 per square foot. Every project gets an itemized, fixed-price estimate after inspection — no vague allowances.
Yes — on patch and spot-repair jobs. We match texture (smooth, sand, dash, lace, Santa Barbara, etc.) and work with a color-coat specialist to blend new work with weathered existing stucco. Perfect matches are hard when stucco is more than 10–15 years old because UV and weather change the color over time; in those cases we usually recommend color-coating the full elevation to avoid a visible patch. We discuss the tradeoff during estimate.
For most Bay Area homes, fiber cement (James Hardie board) is the strongest performer. It doesn't rot, doesn't warp, is non-combustible (important in fire-risk zones across Marin, the East Bay hills, and the Peninsula), and holds paint far better than wood in fog conditions. Wood siding — cedar, redwood, clapboard — is period-correct on older homes and performs well when properly maintained, but requires repainting every 5–8 years in coastal conditions. Composite siding (LP SmartSide) is a middle ground. We recommend based on your home's architectural style, location, and maintenance tolerance.
Yes. Doelger homes (built in the 1930s–1950s across SF's Sunset, Westlake in Daly City, and parts of Pacifica) often have stucco over shiplap sheathing — a construction detail that fails predictably at windows and roof edges. Victorian and Edwardian homes frequently have later stucco applied over the original lath-and-plaster or wood siding, which creates its own set of water intrusion risks. We've worked on all of these construction types across SF, Daly City, Pacifica, and the Avenues, and know where the failure points hide.
Small dry rot or stucco patches typically take 1–3 days. Whole-elevation stucco re-coat or siding replacement usually runs 1–2 weeks. Full-house re-stucco or a complete re-siding typically takes 2–4 weeks, depending on size and weather. We give you a specific timeline with the estimate and update you weekly. 94% of our projects finish on or ahead of schedule.
We include a contingency for typical surprise findings in every estimate — about 10–15% depending on the home's age. If we open a wall and find significantly more rotted framing than the inspection suggested, we stop, photograph the finding, and give you a written change order before doing any additional work. You approve (or decline) in writing. We never surprise you with a bigger bill at the end of the job.

Water Damage Doesn't Wait. Neither Should You.

Free exterior inspection, honest written report, fixed-price estimate. We respond in minutes — not days.

Or call (650) 771-5817 — talk to a real person, not a call center.
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