Stucco Patching & Painting
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Introduction
This and the following pages are here to help clear up confusion surrounding stucco patching and painting. After reading through these pages you will know what type of stucco you have and most importantly you'll have an idea of what it will look like after the cracks are filled and the problem areas are patched. By knowing what will happen and what "look" to expect after the work is complete you will be more satisfied with the choices you and the contractor make together. So welcome to the section of the AA Brite 24/7 web page focused on stucco patching and painting.
Please be aware the information presented here is from an "after the fact" view point. I'm a licensed remodeling contractor in Arizona and our company specialty is painting and coating, so my experience is from a stucco patch and paint point of view and not that of a builder or new stucco application guy. I deal with patching and painting stucco which has typically aged at least five years in the desert sun, and not with the whys of how a particular structure was built or why a particular type or texture was used.
Shadowing - The Most Important Concept in Stucco
In order to understand stucco as a consumer, you must understand shadowing. If you don't know about shadowing then eighty percent of the rest of stucco problems won't make any sense. In a nutshell, even though most people think of stucco as flat, or almost flat it is in reality mountainous with hills, valleys, ridges, peaks, caves and overhangs, in many ways it's like viewing the Colorado mountains from an airplane. Looking straight down from high up the mountains don't look very tall or appear to have much definition. As the plane gets lower and you look more towards the horizon (parallel) the mountains look taller and have more jagged features and detail. Looking at stucco is similar to this. And here's the kicker. When the sun is almost parallel to the stucco wall and causing small bumps to cast long shadows, the variations from place to place on the stucco will look more uneven and less desirable.
A picture is worth a 1000 words.
Shadows minimized. Photo taken where the stucco grains cast short shadows. Notice the defect straight to the left from the upper left corner of the sign.
Same area of the stucco, different angle. Notice the splotchieness of the sand pattern. This is typical and normal. The grains of sand are casting longer shadows from this angle at this time of day. Ironically, this viewing angle has made the dent almost invisible. By stucco standards this wall was well done and unless you're looking at it critically from this angel it looks good most of the time. (We didn't paint this wall, this is at a gas station I use) With the understanding that stucco looks different from different angles and always looks worse when viewed from an angle where shadows are long, everything else with regards to stucco patching and painting can now make sense. Link to Next Page - No Perfect Match
