How Stucco is Applied

In many respects, we have come a very long way in the world in terms of creating houses to live in. Today’s housing options are safe, study, comfortable, durable, and very attractive. The western world churns out high-quality homes by the millions every year, and people lucky enough to live in them know exactly what sort of luxury they have. Though while a lot of methods and materials we use in today’s constructions are relatively modern, there are some things that are very old yet still work well. Plaster coatings for the home, for instance, date back thousands of years. By mixing up materials like special types of clay, sand, and other aggregate materials with water, a coating is created for structures that is very easy to apply when wet, yet it dries like concrete and creates a hard shell.

You probably know this material as stucco. Though do you know how it’s applied to homes? Before you contact a quality service for stucco repair or installation like Golden Trowel Stucco, you might first want to learn how this material is applied to the home. Her are the steps involved in the application of this plaster type.

The Six-Step Process of Applying Plaster

1. Setting the Date

Any quality company offering stucco repair or installation is going to first set up a date. They’re going to figure out when the weather’s going to be nice, no rain, sleet or snow on the forecast, and they will start preparing to do the job. This might seem like a useless step, but the installation of this plaster greatly depends on what the weather permits, so this is their first step.

2. Preparing the Sheathing

This plaster doesn’t just cling to the wood or to any existing siding. It has to be placed on something like cement board, OSB, gypsum sheathing, or some other type of material. The type of material used to create the sheathing underlayer for the plaster will depend on building codes and what the professional company thinks will work best for your home.

3. Building Paper

The underlayment isn’t done yet! When the professionals install or repair this plaster, they’re doing it to last you a long, long time. So they’re not just going to smear the stuff onto the sheathing without another layer there, called building paper. This is just another in a few pieces of underlayment that are going to be affixed to the home before the player can finally be applied. It’s an involved process, which is why it’s better for the pros to handle it than for people to do it as a DIY project.

4. Installing a Casing Bead

Plaster goes on sort of like a wet cement, so how do you get those perfectly square edges rather than having it drip and goop all down the wall? This is where a casing bead comes in to catch the plaster so it makes a perfectly straight edge when it dries and so it doesn’t go running everywhere when it’s wet. Again, this is something the pros handle very well for repairs and installation.

5. Laths and Control Joints

The underlayment is almost complete now. With this step, the lath will be installed, which is stapled to the studs through the other layers on the exterior. This is the screen-like material that’s going to hold onto the plaster and allow it to set up level and tough. Control joints are attached throughout the lath in order to provide more stability for the plaster, which helps to prevent cracking and other issues.

6. The Plaster

This is when the actual aggregate material is applied onto all the other layers to create that finished product of the hard protective plaster shell. It is professionally applied so that it’s perfectly even and level, and then it’s textured to give it that classic appearance. Again, it’s important to remember that the professionals are trained to do this job, and a DIY attempt could spell disaster.

This sort of plaster is a very popular choice for home exteriors, though it’s in no way perfect. You may find a time when you need it repaired, and that’s when you should call the pros.