Stucco Problems
This section is included to allow you to educate yourself on the various types of problems associated with stucco in Tucson Arizona. Upon reading it you will unfortunately note some of the problems, such as a building defect or efflorence leaching can not be effictively dealt with by patching and painting. In these cases the underlying issues need to be addressed prior to painting. On more positive note you will also see issues such as "hot stucco" and flaking stucco which can be dealt with.
Painted Hot: One of the most typical problems with stucco is it was "painted hot". This means the stucco was painted before the Ph value was lowered. Fresh stucco has a high Ph value and old stucco has a more neurtal Ph value. Paint does not last very long when it is applied to a surface with a high Ph value. There are three ways to get NEW stucco ready to paint. 1) Let it age naturally for six months or a year. or 2) Thoroughly water the raw stucco walls with a hose or sprinkler about a dozen times prior to painting. or 3) Use a primer like Dunn Edwards Eff Stop prior to painting.
In the above photo a painter is applying Dunn Edwards Eff Stop. This will protect the paint from the higher Ph value of the fresh stucco. If the stucco is painted "hot" without being specially primed like above, the paint will become splotchy within a few years.
Part C of this pircture shows paint as its supposed to look. The paint burned by stucco with too high a Ph is shown in section B. Another defect called "scarring" is shown in A. Scarring is addressed below.
Scarring: The severity of the scarring greatly affects how much work will be involved in repairing it. If the scarring is bad enough the "repair" is to restucco the entire wall. For financial reasons this is rarely considered. Section A of the photo above show a worst case scenero. Its a block wall in a clients back yard and its facing the desert. The "worst case" part is the texture around the crack in Section A is completely filled in, and now this area is also taller than the surrounding stucco.
If the homeowner wanted it to look perfect, or close to perfect the wall would have to be re-stuccoed. In my experience he went with the most common decision for such a situation which was to have us focus on the house and to just patch the cracks on the wall that were not going to add to the cost of the job.
Flaking Stucco: Is more common in older homes and those with sprayed on cement stucco or Tex. Depending on the size of the area needing patching we use both synthetic (plastic) or masonery patching compounds.
The picture above is of a Stucco coated Parapet which is in poor condition and is severely flaking.
This is the same parapet after being patched. We also painted this home and recoated the roof with Elastek.
Efflorescence Leaching: Is a difficult problem to deal with. If water gets into a wall (sprinkler constantly spraying the wall, its a wet part of the yard, its a retaining wall with dirt piled up against it) over time it will have efflorescence leaching. Once the water gets into the concrete, it doesn't matter how good the paint job is or what quality paint was used. As the water leaves it will deposit calcium and salt on the surface as it evaporates. This is usually not a painting problem but a design problem.
Here is a link to an in depth article about efflorescence Leaching. Its posted in a Concrete construction online trade magazine.
Stucco Problems: Delaminating
This problem typically happens with painted Adobe. Over time the adobe block literally comes apart. Its made of dirt, and when it ages and falls apart it turns back into loose dirt again. In one example we had over 100 lbs of dirt come out of the wall when we scraped off the blistered paint.
When an area like the one shown is skillfully patched it will look almost perfect. Masonary patching compound was used for this location to maximize compatibility between the adobe (dirt) and the patch.
Scaffold Lines: Are on many homes, but ironically for me as a painter are not typically noticed by a homeowner until after a home has been freshly painted. The lines are the result of human movement as the wet stucco was applied with worker standing on the scaffolding. In this picture the person applying the stucco was bending down when standing on the top of the scaffolding. Bending over causes a different angle on the trowel being used to smear on the stucco. As the worker pulled up on the trowel the angle of the blade changed and the texture looked different.
The left side in the red was the limit to how far left the worker could swing his arm while standing on the scaffolding.
Construction Defects: There is a subdivision in Tucson where it appears to me many of the parapet wall tops were not constructed correctly. All of the parapets on this home looked the same. In this case the parapets needed to be cut open with a diamond saw and re-stucco'ed.
Same parapet as above photo. Here you can see the reinforcing mesh is exposed and rusted out.
So concludes the Stucco Problems section. I hope it has been informitive and if you have any suggestions for improvement please let me know.
