Stucco Repair: Smooth Stucco
When well done, smooth stucco is often considered the most elegant looking. The mansion pictured on my main web page and below has a smooth stucco finish and it looks great. However, smooth stucco comes at a price. The smoother and flatter a surface the more it shows any defect or variation - and all walls have some waves and variations. Think of a shiny clean glass table with three grains of sand on it. The three grains of sand (read small defects) stand out so much because the table is smooth. Its also the most difficult stucco to patch. Again think of trying to glue together a broken glass table without having any witness lines or scars, even after its painted. Though we repair it, it's fairly difficult to do.
Well done original flat stucco will only require minor crack repairs. With well done stucco the building will not look like a zebra when the prep work is finished and its ready to be repainted since only a spot here or there was patched. As you slide down further in the quality of the original construction, the building will be more and more striped with repair work. When it looks like a zebra prior to painting, then some of the patch work is going to show. For cases like this there is only one other option and that's to re-stucco the exterior - which can cost ten to thirty thousand dollars.
The photo above is of a home that could have been built better. It appears the foam backing is moving under the stucco, and there are quite a few waves. if a like new finish is desired, then the correct answer is to entirely re-stucco the home. Since variations and defects are so visible on this stucco type, most builders avoid using it.
When cracks are perfectly horizontal or vertical this is also an indication the materials under the stucco are moving. Cracks don't naturally occur in straight lines. Looking at this picture you can almost count the pieces of plywood and foam under the stucco - based on the way its cracking.
Link to Next Page - Sanded Stucco
