foundation wall covering

sorry i have no pics; i keep forgetting the camera.

the past few days i've dug out around the foundation to expose 3' of foundation wall. this is enough for the hardware cloth to be attached. i still need to do a little more digging, especially b/c i may need more clearance to attach screws at lower parts of the wall, to hold the mesh to the foam.

i've got 6 50lb bags of surface bonding cement on-hand, along with a dozen quarts of acrylic admix. this is sufficient for 300sf of coverage at 1/8" thickness. hopefully i wont need more, but i'm prepared to go out and buy more if needed. it's not terribly expensive. about $70 each for the cement and the admix.

tomorrow is easter, so im not sure if i'll venture out there for work on a holiday. i'm not looking forward to trying to get the mesh into place by myself; i'm sure it will get dirt all over it while struggling with the long lengths of it. i suppose i'll attach it into position and then spray it down with the hose.. this will make a muddy mess and has the potential to delay the stucco. hopefully i just push through and get 'er done.

this needs to get done and over with - i don't want a moat around my house after the next rain.

obviously, in the future, i should stucco the foundation before backfilling. all this excavation and dealing with dirt is extra work and takes alot of time. my priority then was getting the roof on, but in retrospect it only cost me time and labor later on.

yesterday, i also got a foam can and sprayed the gaps in the gable wall sheathing just below the ridge, as wasps were using it as a door. i also filled in gaps in the sill plate and band joist while the can was being used.

i purchased a roll of fiberglass window screen, 3' x 25', for about 20 bux. i cut this into small pieces and stapled them up in the attic, covering the lower air vents. i used short galv staples in the staple gun, this worked ok but drove through the screen a few times. i should try out a simple T50 spring actuated stapler. why do pneumatic staplers seem to have such poor control/consistency?

anyway, i used standard window screen instead of a 1/2" hardware cloth, as it would reject more, smaller, insects. the lower air vents are well over-sized in relation to the upper ridge vent, and the reduction in cross section from the finer mesh doesn't hinder the roof ventilation system. fyi, i calc'd an approx 65% ventilation rate with the screen in place, which is with an 18x16 mesh.