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Air Conditioning
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How To Apply Stucco
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George S. of Gary, IN wrote: My wife and I have decided add a stucco finish to the exterior walls of our house. I'm thinking this is a DIY project I could probably do myself. Can you tell me a little about how to apply stucco? Applying stucco to walls is generally a two step process. The amount of work involved depends on the surface you're going to apply the stucco to. Since I don't know what type of wall you have I'm going to assume it's wood and we'll go over the techniques. Make sure your walls are free of debris and rough areas such as bent nails. You'll need to begin with roofing felt and nailing it to the walls. Be careful to install the felt so it's smooth with no wrinkles and trim off any excess. |
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Once the felt has been installed you need to cover it with metal netting or chicken wire as most people call it. You'll need snips and galvanized nails to attach it to the walls. Make sure to trim any excess and try to attach it flush against the wall without any folds or wrinkles in it. The chicken wire rolls come in long lengths so there is not a lot of overlapping but where necessary try not to overlap too much as to keep it uniform.
Now it's time to apply the finish coat. You'll
need a flat finishing trowel to apply the stucco in about a 1/4" thickness over
the scratch coat. I would experiment with this and after you work on a small
area take a minute to stand back and look at your work. I would take look at it
several times during the day to make sure the stucco has been troweled to your
satisfaction. Once you are satisfied with how you have applied the stucco it
needs to be misted and be allowed to cure for another 48 hours.
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Now it's time to start applying the stucco to the walls. I suggest you have a
helper for this. Usually stucco is made of portland cement, masonry cement and
sand. It can get very heavy and you need to concentrate on the stucco work and
not mixing and transporting the stucco with your wheelbarrow. Like I said this
is a two step process. Using a trowel you'll first need to apply a scratch coat
of mortar about 1/3" to 1/2" over the netting, making sure it's pressed well
into the netting. Once applied it needs to be scratched with a brush
horizontally so the next layer will adhere to it. This process isn't supposed to
be pretty - just make sure your work is relatively uniform in thickness. Once
finished allow it to cure for about 2 days and using your hose spray a fine mist
on it once in a while to keep it moist. 