Stucco must be kept in good repair in order for it to remain aesthetically pleasing and prevent it from deteriorating. It is used as a decorative coating for walls and ceilings, external building siding, and as a sculptural and artistic material in architecture. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. Stucco is a material made of cement, water, and sand. The advantage of building with stucco is that it can last for decades with the proper care and maintenance. They are very common in the Southwest, including Arizona because of that. Homes built with stucco siding are very popular in hot, dry climates. I could have tried to get a stucco similar to the siding color, but since I plan on painting all that one day, I wasn’t going to worry about matching a color I didn’t want to keep.What Not To Do When Painting Your Home’s Stucco Exterior Once the stucco was fully cured, I painted! There are actually a bunch of finish products that have a built-in color, which is why many are called a “color coat” but I wanted my stucco to match my siding color so I knew I wanted to paint it. It was clearly a work in progress, okay people? 9. Our house had these bright white bandaids for a solid month which probably made the neighbors think I forgot about the project. After a few days of misting the walls with a garden hose, I waited for Kirk’s recommended 28 days to let it dry out. I spent a few weeks watering my stucco to make sure the blazing summer heat didn’t suck the moisture too quickly. Since water is such a critical part of the adhesion and texture of stucco and cement products, rushing to trap the moisture in with paint is never recommended. Once everything was retextured, I let it cure. I followed the package instructions which said to mix to a peanut butter consistency then let it sit for 5 minutes. I used a big bucket that I had on hand to add water and dry mix. If I had a team of helpers, the drill may not have had the power to keep up. Because I was mixing small batches, I didn’t need a heavy-duty cement mixer so using my drill with a cement mixer attachment worked perfectly for me. ![]() Since I was only one person, I couldn’t work with too much mud at a time or else it would all dry out. Some folks recommend painting an adhesive glue on the wall before applying portland cement, but this was basically a 2-in-1 so it saved me a step. It’s designed for EXACTLY what I was doing - filling cracks and preparing for a finish coat. It’s a portland cement with added polymers for adhesion and support. I went for a base coat that I could make extra thick, then put a color coat on top to get the texture I wanted. Some folks only use a color coat but since that needs to be applied so thinly, it would have required 8 or so layers, and I didn’t want to do this 8 times. I’m going to reference Kirk several times in this post because I owe everything I know to him.įor my project, I chose to do a base coat to fill in the deep cavities and imperfections. I also find these videos as satisfying as watching people make a cake. Even if you aren’t doing this project, you’ll still want to watch because his cadence makes me chuckle and he’s super informative. No matter what project you’re doing, you’ll want to spend about 100 hours watching Kirk Giordano videos on YouTube. But, I’m not going to cover that since I didn’t do it. Depending on the job, you can get away with just the finish coat, or if you’re doing a fresh stucco job, you’ll need a scratch coat on top of the wire mesh. Also I did this project over three years ago, so my memory of all of the step-by-steps is a little rusty. I highly recommend Kirk’s videos for learning the many different ways to apply finishes with different products. ![]() There are a bunch of products and techniques out there. Plus, I took a bunch of photos, so I need to publish them on the internet - If I don’t prove I did it, did the project didn’t even happen?ĭisclaimer: I’m going to show you what I did for MY particular project. If you have the privilege of time, energy, physical ability, and money, you can do nearly any home improvement project - even the unglamorous ones. But I want to share this post to keep you updated on the work that went into the restoration of my home and demonstrate the power of a determined DIYing woman (me). Now, I realize this isn’t a DIY project that most people need to do. I’m here to share what I did, how I did it, and give you some satisfying before and afters to enjoy. Once we removed the existing plantings and admired our dirt pile, it became obvious that there was some stucco repair to be done. ![]() I last left off sharing how I saved thousands of dollars and saved foliage from the landfill when trying to clear out our front yard to make way for new plantings. It’s about time I share more about our landscaping project that I’ve been teasing about for awhile.
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