Our Process
Inside a stucco repair on your Wagner 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 Wagner 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.
Getting the stucco color close
Color is harder than texture. The brief notes that a close match can generally be approximated with sand and pigments, but it takes testing and comparing dried test samples with the original, and even the amount of water in the mix changes the color once it dries.
For an unpainted stucco chimney in Wagner, we mix and dry samples before the finish coat and show you how close they come. Where a small patch on a prominent face would still show, painting the whole chimney after the repair makes it read as one surface, and we price that option too.
Keeping new stucco from drying too fast
To prevent cracking, the brief stresses that stucco must not dry too fast. The area should be shaded, or even covered if possible, particularly in hot weather, and in hot weather it is a good idea to keep the newly stuccoed area damp for 48 to 72 hours.
A chimney has no eaves to shade it, so on a hot Wagner day our team hangs shade over the fresh work and mists it through the curing period. If the weather will not allow proper curing, we move the finish coat to another day and tell you why.
Painting stucco after the repair
Many stucco chimneys are painted, and the paint has to go back on after a repair. Preservation Brief 22 says the most important factor is that the new paint be compatible with any coating already on the surface, that loose or peeling paint be removed first, and it warns that latex paint will not stick to chalky or powdery areas.
Our crew scrapes loose paint around the repair on your Wagner chimney, cleans the surface and recommends a coating that suits both the old paint and the new stucco. Oil-based paint needs new stucco to cure far longer, up to a year according to the brief, so the product choice also sets when the chimney can be painted.
