What's Included
The stucco repair process for Alderene Park homes
Hairline cracks and how to treat them
Small hairline cracks usually are not serious, according to Preservation Brief 22, and they may be sealed with a thin slurry coat made from the finish-coat ingredients, or even with a coat of paint. A crack that fine often stays in the outer layer and never reaches the backing.
Each fine crack on your Alderene Park chimney is checked for signs that it goes further, such as a hollow sound around it or rust staining along its line. If it stays at the surface, a slurry or a compatible coating is often all it needs, and you pay for that rather than a cut-out patch.
Why sound masonry does not get new lath
It can seem like extra metal lath would make a stucco patch stronger. Preservation Brief 22 says that for the most part it is not advisable to insert metal lath when restuccoing masonry in sound condition. Fixing the lath damages the masonry, and the slightest moisture can rust the metal, which expands and spalls the stucco and possibly the masonry too.
Where the stucco on your Alderene Park chimney sits directly on sound block or brick, we bond the new coats straight to that surface. Lath goes back only where the chimney was built with it, such as a framed chase, and there it is corrosion-resistant as the code requires.
Dampening the surface before patching
Dry masonry pulls water out of fresh stucco too quickly, which weakens the bond. Preservation Brief 22 says wood lath or a masonry substrate, but not metal lath, must be thoroughly wetted before stucco patches are applied, so that it does not draw moisture out of the stucco too fast.
Our crew dampens the prepared masonry on your Alderene Park chimney before each coat and watches the surface as the work goes on, because a sunny chimney face can dry out between the first trowel and the last. It is a small step that shows up later as a patch that stays attached.
What cracks chimney stucco
Preservation Brief 22 lists the usual causes of stucco deterioration. Ground settlement, leaking gutters and downspouts, intrusive vegetation, splash-back from the ground and vibration from traffic or construction can all crack stucco and let water in, and inexpert earlier repairs can add to the damage.
Some of those causes sit well away from the chimney face. Our specialists look at the gutters, the planting beds and the ground around your Alderene Park chimney as well as the stucco itself, because repairing the finish while a downspout keeps soaking its base only resets the clock.
