Stucco consists mainly of Portland cement, sand and water and is similar to concrete. Prehistoric stucco was performed on dwellings 4,000 years ago such as the pyramids of Egypt and structures in Central and South America. Stucco loves water and will continue to harden for 40 years.
Stucco starts with the lath. Lathing begins with a metal weep screed that is installed around the bottom of the structure. The weep screed allows any water trapped by the paper to “weep” out the bottom. Next, the exterior walls are wrapped with a weather resistant black paper similar to roofing paper. CCP uses a “double” 60 minute paper i.e. two layers. The purpose of the black paper is to create a back-up weather resistant membrane just in case any water gets past the stucco. If any water does get past the stucco, the water will run down the face of the black paper and exit through the metal weep screed. Next, a metal square wire is installed over the black paper. The purpose of the square wire is to provide reinforcement of the newly applied stucco.
After the lath has been completed the stucco is applied in three layers referred to as scratch, brown and texture coats. Each coat is allowed to cure before the next coat is applied. This allows the stucco to harden properly before being covered by the next application.
Color is commonly added to the texture coat although some customers prefer to paint the texture coat. One advantage of stucco is that there is a never ending variety of textures that can be used to finish the plaster ranging from a smooth “egg shell” type texture all the way to a heavy lace texture. |
