Our Process
Inside a stucco repair on your Fern Park chimney
Removing loose stucco without harming good stucco
Cutting out failed stucco takes sharp tools and a light hand. The brief warns plasterers not to break the keys of the surrounding good stucco by over-sounding while they remove the deteriorated material, because the sound stucco next to a repair is exactly what the new patch will meet.
On your Fern Park chimney we remove only what has lost its bond, down to the lath or the masonry beneath, and stop at stucco that is still firmly attached. You keep as much of the original finish as can safely stay, and the repair area on the estimate matches the area actually removed.
Matching the stucco texture
Stucco finishes range from smooth troweled faces to sand, float and dashed textures. Preservation Brief 22 asks for the finish coat to be worked to match the texture of the original, since texture decides how well a repair blends in long before color does.
Our stucco specialists study the finish on your Fern Park chimney before mixing anything, and they try an unusual texture on a sample first. You see that sample before the final coat goes on the chimney, so the finished patch holds no surprises.
Coatings that let stucco dry
Sealers and heavy coatings are often sold as protection for stucco. The International Masonry Institute warns that film-forming coatings and water repellents may cut absorption but can also stop the stucco from breathing and drying when moisture does get in, and it calls for adhesion testing and mockups before any coating is applied.
Preservation Brief 22 adds that a water-repellent coating is in most cases not necessary on stucco, since paints and colorwashes serve the same purpose and stucco is itself a protective coating. On your Fern Park chimney we recommend a coating only where it helps and say plainly when it would not.
Parging on a block chimney
Chimney parging is the trade word for a cement coat troweled over block or brick. The same rules apply to it as to stucco. The surface has to be sound, clean and damp, and the new coat has to bond to it instead of sitting on a failing layer.
Exterior parging on your Fern Park chimney is a different job from coating the inside of a smoke chamber, which faces heat and needs materials made for that use. Our estimate names which surface is being parged, so the materials and the price match the location.
