How To Repair A Stucco Wall

At first glance, the seamless coat of stucco on the East Boston firm looked as bulletproof every bit a sidewalk, the perfect foil confronting the harsh wet weather of this coastal city. Yet beneath its lush cloak of ivy, the cement beat was a mess of cracks and buckling, signs that water had gotten in and damaged the underlying forest lath.

When properly installed, stucco (a cement- or lime-based plaster) is about as carefree and long-lived a cladding every bit anyone could wish—100 years is not uncommon. Just when big cracks or blisters announced, the fourth dimension to make repairs is correct away, before the damage grows.

Antonio DiSilva of MJM Masonry performed the remedial work on the East Boston business firm over ten days, ripping off loose material and patching information technology with three separate coats. Here'southward how to brand stucco repair that lasts.

Stucco Recipes

Stucco Recipes

Offset coat:

1⁄2 bag (47 lbs.) Portland cement
six shovels brick or masonʼs sand, slightly clammy
i shovel hydrated lime
1⁄two loving cup acrylic bonding amanuensis

Second and end coats:

one⁄2 bag (47 lbs.) portland cement
8 shovels aggregate sand for concrete
1 shovel hydrated lime
one⁄2 cup acrylic bonding agent

Directions:

Shovel the dry ingredients into a wheelbarrow and alloy them with a mortar hoe.
Add the acrylic bonding amanuensis, so stir in water, a niggling at a fourth dimension, until the mix reaches the consistency of buttercream frosting.
Too much water will arrive loose and unworkable.
One time water is added, the mix will stay usable for 30 to 90 minutes earlier it starts to harden.

Watch The Atmospheric condition

Freezing temperatures tin ruin wet stucco. Wait for nighttime temperatures that stay higher up 40 degrees before tackling repairs. Hot, dry out, windy atmospheric condition can also interfere by sucking out moisture the mix needs to cure properly. Piece of work in the shade so the stucco doesn't dry out too fast. Between coats, keep the patch moist past covering it with a plastic sheet.

Piece of work Safely

The alkalis in wet cement can cause burns. So when working with fresh stucco, habiliment gloves or impact the mix just with your tools, not your fingers. Go along a bucket of h2o nearby to wash any splashes off your skin.

Terminate Information technology Correct

No patch, no matter how expertly textured, will match the color of the one-time stucco around information technology. To practice that, you need to apply a pigmented coating over the unabridged surface. The patch at this house was covered with a thick, sprayed-on acrylic elastomer that bridges and seals hairline cracks. Other acceptable coatings include concrete paints and stains, mineral paints, lime washes, and "fog coats" of pigmented cement. Whichever coating you use, make sure it'southward alkali metal tolerant and permeable to h2o vapor. Otherwise, information technology will exist peeling off in no time.

Steps for Repairing Stucco

Stride one: Interruption Off Loose Stucco

Whack it with a hammer, or a hammer and a common cold chisel, taking care non to harm the underlying wood board supports. Heart protection is a must.

Step two: Flake Away At The Edges

Continue until you achieve stucco that'south firmly adhered to its board. Cutting any metallic mesh with snips.

Step iii: Embrace The Exposed Lath

Using a utility pocketknife, trim a piece of course-D builder's paper to fit tightly along the purlieus where the quondam stucco meets the exposed wood lath. Spike the paper to the lath with roofing nails, so put a second layer of paper on top of the first.

Step iv: Add Mesh

Place galvanized metallic lath over the newspaper and trim it tight against the edge of the stucco. Snips with offset handles will make this chore easier. Drive more covering nails through the mesh and into the woods board.

Step 5: Mix The Stucco

Post-obit the starting time-coat recipe, stir up a batch of stucco, using a wheelbarrow as a mixing basin. The acrylic bonding agent added to this mix improves the adhesion of the new stucco to the quondam.

Pace 6: Sling It

Wet the border of the one-time stucco so it won't suck moisture out of the patch and weaken the bond betwixt old and new. Scoop fist-size wads of wet stucco onto a brick trowel and toss them confronting the wire lath until it'due south completely covered. Smooth the mix with a finishing trowel, and so pack it against the edge of the existing stucco with a brick trowel. Keep calculation more than textile until this layer is about one/two inch beneath the existing stucco surface.

Stride 7: Scratch It

When the patch loses its wet sheen, score its surface to improve the bond to the side by side glaze. Tape a plastic canvas over the patch to go on it from drying out.

Step 8: Utilise Second Coat

Await seven days, then remove the plastic and mist the patch with water. Mix up a batch of stucco post-obit the 2d-coat recipe, and trowel on a 3/8-inch-thick coat, working from the bottom up. Pack downwards the edges with a brick trowel. Wait for the wet sheen to disappear, so trowel the patch smooth, just beneath the level of the existing stucco. Cover once more with a plastic sheet.

Step ix: Put On The Cease Coat

After three days, remove the plastic, mist the patch, and mix upwardly a fresh batch of stucco, following the finish-coat recipe. Different textures require different techniques. To match this wall'south original "dash" finish, DiSilva scooped small globs of moisture mix onto his brick trowel, and so flicked them against the wall until they were flush with the sometime surface.

Footstep 10: Wait To Paint

Let the patch cure for a calendar week before painting it and the rest of the wall. Nether a glaze of heavy-bodied acrylic elastomer, the patch is invisible.

Tools: