I bought my home a little over 7 years ago and it is sheathed with a
Dryvit type synthetic stucco material. This was all before the
horror stories of moisture getting behind the stuff and rotting
things.

Nevetheless, I have one of these home in the Chicago area and while we
do not have high humidity like the south I was never too worried since
everything looked good, to me.

Well, we had the house inspected and found that around a number of
windows the moisture readings were behind the synthetic material were
nearly 30%, but nothing spongey was found. It would appear that
moisture enters through the mitered joints of the window and gets
behind the synthetic material.

I also added a deck a few years ago and did not cut into the synthetic
material to add a drip edge. I decide to drill through the material
and flood the hole and bolt with GE silicon. I then added copious
amounts of GE Silicon to the wall where the ledger board went. Still,
I got a high reading under the deck below the ledger board. I still
cannot believe moisture entered from the bolt penetrations.

Because I plan to sell my house I will now hire a contractor to
replace all window caulking, and make all the other repairs and then
get the complete installation warranted. I expect the repairs to run
me $10k-$15K, and a one year warranty to be $1.5K.

Anyone else got a similar story, experience, or advice.

Thanks,
John