To Stucco the Front of a House

Discovering the proper style for a house can be a challenge. Getting the house to stick out from the audience means creating a look that is different from the normal siding or brick exteriors found in most contemporary structures. Applying a layer of stucco covering to the front of a house can help give you the look that distinguishes your house from the rest. Stucco is a tough mortar that is spread across the surface of the outside of your house. The mortar can be coloured and textured to create the appearance you desire, all while drying tough enough to last for decades with little maintenance needed. The application process can be somewhat involved, but the results can be stunning as you transform the look of the front of your house completely in a matter of days.

Ready the front of the house for the stucco application. Clean the exterior thoroughly with a pH-neutral cleaner to remove any debris or dirt. Use a sponge for general cleaning and a clean brush for ingrained dirt. Rinse the surface thoroughly with water from a hose to remove the cleanser.

Spread a layer of concrete bond agent on concrete or brick walls with a paintbrush or paint roller to assist the stucco material bond to the current stone of the house. Allow the agent 30 minutes of drying time before applying the initial stucco coat. For bonding stucco to wooden walls, use metal netting. Cover the wooden walls of the front of the house with 15-pound roof felt. Nail the felt into place with galvanized roofing nails then attach 17-gauge metal pliers across the felt. Cut the netting as needed with tin snips and nail it into place with the roof nails too. Overlap the seams made by adjacent bits of netting by two inches.

Mix the first coat of stucco, known as the scratch coating, with one part Portland cement, 1 part lime, and four parts fine sand. Mix the substances at a wheelbarrow with a hoe, inducing the mix to stir it completely. Slowly add water to the substances, stirring them until you have a mix that is stiff enough to adhere to a trowel, but not too rigid to spread–about the consistency of peanut butter.

Place some of the stucco mixture onto a hawk, a flat square table-like surface with a handle underneath you may hold in your hand to transfer the stucco around easily as you apply it to the wall. Move the stucco from hawk to wall using a metal trowel. Distribute the stucco over the wall while holding the trowel in a 30-degree angle. Build the stucco up to a coat about 3/8-inch thick, pushing the netting if present to the wall beneath to provide the stucco more surface to adhere to. Continue spreading the stucco across the walls, going from bottom to top and utilizing little curved strokes to achieve a level depth until you complete the whole front of the house.

Scratch the disperse coat of stucco utilizing a plaster’s rake. Drag the rake across the surface of the stucco, scratching the substance to a depth of approximately 1/8 inch. The scrapes help the complete coat of stucco adhere to the surface of the wall. Wait about 48 hours for the scratch coat to cure. Mist it with water with the water hose to keep the surface moist so as to avoid the substance from curing too quickly.

Utilize a manufactured finish coat for your final layer of stucco. Mix the stucco following the directions furnished by the manufacturer, using the wheelbarrow. Insert concrete colorant while mixing, if you would like to change the last color of the stucco. Prior to incorporating the colorant, mix the colorant with water and substitute this colored water for the water you’d normally use for the mix.

Apply the finish coat of stucco to the wall with the same procedure as you used to apply the scratch coating. Build up the complete coat to a depth of 1/8 to 1/4 inch.

Apply a texture to the finish coating of stucco. Anything that alters the surface of the stucco, such as a trowel, broom or concrete stampsthat you can use to apply the texture. Make sure that you don’t cut through the end layer to the scrape layer during texturing.

Wait an extra 48 hours for the finish coat to cure. Keep the stucco moist with a mist of water through this curing period.

See related