Why new smooth stucco cracks do' and don'ts

Howdy, folks kirk and Jason here with Kirk Giordano plastering. today I want to go over smooth   finishes uh you've got your La Habra Santa barbara  that's a 30 /30 sand very fine like talcum powder   except it does have sand you got marble bmi  uh product you got about 20 different products   all of them have the very fine sand for the  finish coat three sands you got your fine   your medium and your course okay we're pretty far  from home we're in beautiful tiburon now when i   when i when i get a job a lot of these jobs i'll  bid online and i'll come out and do it and so i   i bid uh some work here i said gee i'll  charge this amount to do the uh laugh then   this amount to do the base coat and put a color  finish on it and so he did his own laugh which   he did a pretty good job uh considering he'd  never done it before it's not standard to like   us but hey he's never done it before only watched  our videos for an hour anyway i want to explain   something on a santa barbara smooth mission finish  or whatever material whatever you want to call it   when you do a two coat system  and this is a two coat system   you'll get these hairline cracks here how old is  this house i'd say about 80 70 70 years old if   you paint it every 10 years guys your house will  last forever all the wood everything will last a   long time but when you get these hairline cracks  here what you generally do and i tell people hey   put caulking in here and then wipe it off so only  the caulking goes into the crack how do you do   that well you use a caulk in here and you want to  use something that's paintable too guys you can't   use a polyurethane because you can't spread them  and you can't use some silicones because you can't   paint them so use like a 40 year or above type of  caulking kelly moore or sherwin williams can't go   wrong what's that caulking day then you take your  trowel and hit it wipe all the excess off when you   wipe all the excess off and leave the caulking  into just the crack when you paint it you're   not going to see it i'm going to show you what  we're matching today now this isn't really a two   coat santa barbara finish how do i know well i  can see you see all the sand how'd they get all   this sand how'd they get all this sand this this  this all the sand see all the sand i'll tell you   how you get the sand what is saying that fancy  word aggregate so what they did was they still   tried the whole house they still child it's still  child one guy was still traveling and before that   they had floated it so when they floated it this  brought the sand out and when they applied the   uh the texture and they just used trowels they  didn't use another a finish coat they just went   over back and forth back and forth and more  than likely they use swim pull trowels because   that keeps the lines out it gets rid of a lot of  this stuff here it's hard to get rid of it with a   square trial or rectangular trowel see the lines  here this is typical it's typical even though   it has a weep screen that weep screed  serves as an expansion so the house can move   gives us something to stop at and when it's  painted if anything leaks there's holes here   so it drips out harmlessly without harm  in the mud still okay that being said   because he said well can you match this i said  yeah i can match that there's nothing i've ever   seen that we can't match exposed aggregates  where they throw sea shells and abalone shells   and different rocks yeah that's difficult to match  unless you have this exact batch but we are back   here the fella uh whom we uh did this base code  again i might have been kind of hard on them   last time i was here but it's another day and we  jason and i spent about three hours going over and   redoing his lap and here's okay look at this wall  please jay um you see this hairline crack here   i expected this whole wall to be chattered and  hairlined after the hydration period he spent   two weeks and he hosed it down what does that do  it expands it the stucco then it shrinks and when   it expands it cracks like that and plus over wood  if you're going over wood that wood is twisting   even the midnight air two to three four in the  morning the moisture gets that it expands it   shrinks it so you're always gonna get cracking  uh with a two coat system no such thing not to   get cracking with a two coat system unless even  though some materials say oh it's crack free yeah   if you put it in a little bag and you hang it from  a tree maybe there'll be no crack but in the real   world it cracks because not of poor workmanship  but it's just the nature of it and name a cement   i've used it 25 times any cement we've used it  25 times at least some thousands of times but   say like on this other side i'm going to show you  something we have some more excessive cracking   and i expected it i told the fella here i said  man you uh you stapled the wire so flat and it's   backwards what does that mean it just means uh let  me put it in terms that you guys all understand   you take rebar and you're gonna pour some cement  you put dobies so that the rebar is with little   blocks so that the rebar is two inches above the  ground and when you put four inches of concrete   two inches goes below two inches goes above boom  that's a solid way to do to prevent cracking what   he did was he stapled it tight and that's okay  guys you see all these staples oh we did a job   30 years ago in tiburon and we got gung-ho  too we did the same thing inspector came out   and said man we were like 25. he says you guys  got a little carried away i said so what do you   think he said i don't i don't think anything i  think put them down put them down so you don't   want to take them out you can't take them out you  take them out you create a lot of leaks so the   fact that the wire is so flat and jay and i spent  forever pulling it out you could only pull it out   so much and he said well dang do i gotta take it  all out and redo it i said not really but expect   a little cracking even with a color coat expect  some cracking over here we're going to the jungle what you see some of these cracks that's what  i expected the whole thing to be in fact i   expected a lot more here and here just the  fact that we use an incredibly strong cement   is why we only have this you say wow that's a  lot no it's not compared to with wires when it's   really flat so if you do your own lath make sure  you watch some of our videos to show how to do it   a little bit better can you put caulking in  this if i put caulking in this right now and i   shave it like that any color other than crystal  white will show like say the color coat will dry   and you'll see that variation of a color code  you'll see it right through the color code it's   called ghosting bleeding but you don't want to  do that and some folks say well why don't you put   mesh on it fiberglass mesh tape well you can't do  and you should not do fiberglass mesh tape with a   santa barbara finish because it'll be a big hump  by the time you put an eighth over that then 16th   over this, you kind of see the humps because I've  been doing this close to 40 years I've done about   50 homes with a santa barbara so you don't want to  do that anyway the cure time is why this expanded   and because it's wood and notice he doesn't have  the doors on yet and there's no sheet rock and   he says well kirk i'm not going to sheet rocket  and i thought okay get some doors on here because   even though we color coat this we'll get all this  stuff out more than likely because the wire is so   flat and any vibration doors you install sheetrock  is going to recrack it but i told them we'll put   the finish on and he said he wanted to paint that  anyhow so i said if you could develop any of these   hairlines these are hair lines like the hair on  your head this is a hair line if you could stick   a credit card in it it ain't a hair line anyway  we're going to get started over here and we'll   show you how to uh spread it too alright guys i'll  show you a couple more tips since we're already   showing things all right now this wall when jay  and i did the base coat we took a steel trowel   we darted it then we and that's called steel  troweling when you still trowel a wall you seal   it that means it's difficult for the water to get  into therefore i've wet this down five six times   what i do on a whole house i'll tell the homeowner  hey would you do me a favor and wet your whole   house down the evening before that way when we get  there it's still saturated because you want it to   be completely saturated because now i sealed it  with the trowel because if you hardware if you   say sponge bloated now you bring the sand out and  one grain of sand jacks this finish up one grain   imagine thousands and thousands of grains and yes  while i'm messing around here just showing you   uh I do this so that I can use  skill, I don't want to use strength   i want to use skill so you you wet it now we did  a wall about 15 years ago it was getting late   there was like 10 of us and we got beat up because  we had two we had a full mixer and we had to put   it on the wall i thought now it's not going to  be dry in time for us to steal trollet so i had   no choice but to sponge it you pull it upward  upward and say two weeks later when we got there   to do the finish we had to scrape for hours just  scrape get all right get all the grit out because   if you have one grain of grit  it drags it so we're scraping with uh what's Santa barber you're hustling  they got you hustling hustling hustling   so anyway when you do a Santa barbara after you  darby it trolls it don't ever use this guy here   and close your eyes and steal charlotte because  you don't want grit because grit will jack you up   here's your best friend for a Santa barbara  smooth mission finish this two-dollar brush   this is your best friend because like uh  on a lot of this stuff here what they did   is they did the corners then they took  afloat, and they brought the sand out,   so you don't want to do that you want I'll show  you how to do this brush in a minute, okay,   and that's one of the most important tools so  what I'm going to do now is let's just coat this Generally, you want to start  from the bottom, pull it up,   and with a steel trowel again, especially  when the wall is wet come down up go into   it go into your own joint. I like to  go get my corners like this because with these uh finishes that have  so little aggregate in it or sand,   the corner bead tends to show a little  other corner bead showing because It'll be like a piece of metal. It'll  be a sore thumb, so we don't want that. I'm taking it out of this  bucket right here. Bucket scoop   put it on here a little bit more because I don't  want to mess around okay, get into the jungle now. And you know how I'm pulling it upward, guys,  and yeah, there are a few holidays. That's okay.   I'm pulling it upward sideways, getting that  joint, then coming back down on the same work   you want to come back down on the same  work. You don't have to look. Just   let your trial and keep that trowel  on edge guys a little bit, okay come up come down on it and that's it like that now I'll show you with uh as far as trolling now all i got to do is charlie  and you guys got to know one thing if you're   asking and yesterday i had a call you know we got  what 900 videos online and i think i've answered   44 i've responded to is the correct  terminology i've responded to over 40   000 comments and most comments are hey you guys  are pretty good or hey man i learned a lot from   you guys and there's always a few people who say  dude you suck oh you're using the wrong trial   i love those anyway for the sake of uh explaining  a couple things at once the fellow emailed me he   said kirk I paid these guys to do a Santa barbara  finish and again there are 20 different materials   all cementitious all of them with fine medium  and coarse sand and he says they they did a   horrible job look and so i was looking at  the pictures and i thought that's not bad   and so i called him i said man may you know i  don't want to go against my fellow contractor   but if he's wrong he's wrong if he's right he's  right so I said that discoloration is because   of the troweling you went with a dark color even  with crystal white we have a lot of problems with   coloration why it's a steel chop finish and  say when you put your mud on here now you got   to go over it you got to get you got to get  all the imperfections out and by doing this   what does that do guys it discolors it  because we're troweling it over and over   and over in order to get a smooth you can't  just put it on you could only trial down   sand so smooth guys now gypsum no sand in it you  can make it look like glass but you cannot make   a sandy finish look like glass it is impossible  yeah kirk said it it's impossible i can't do it   don't know very many people who can do it uh i'll  show you again if you want to even make it tighter   you can make it tighter because  technically most santa barbara's are   two coat finishes so i told them i think  they did a fine job my friend because   they're using a dark color they've had the steel  trowelet and when they still trowel it that's what   causes the discoloration now granted if you're  gonna get a a smooth finish santa barbara is   the main one but bmi makes marble and every other  company has a pretty name for the uh same finish   but be aware it's not like a painted surface  guys, it is not like a painted surface you want a   painted surface and this guy said he'd paint this  i said go ahead you won't see any color variations   crystal white is about the only color you can  do that you can go over things and it not show and how many times have I done crystal white   about 40? I don't know 50. something  like that but even crystal y   when you still trial it is going to have color  variation and that's what you get when you want a   smooth finish welcome to and everybody seems to  love a santa barbara smooth mission finish okay   let me get back to that little bitty uh brush and  show you something okay now notice this any any   smooth finish takes a lot of troweling and there's  the reason why it's double the cost guys because   i just i put two coats on it just for the heck  of it two coats is smoother than what he has but   i don't want to do what i think looks nice i  want to do what he says match a lot of people   will also comment and say kirk you should have  done this or that it's like guys when you own   your own house and you hire somebody like me  you make the rules you tell me what you want   whether or not i think it's pretty i'll do it  that's just how we are anyhow so i'm uh i'm   gonna go over this just slightly now one more  time like this i'm not going to add any more   materials but say i'm going to grab that itty  bitty 2 inch dollar brush gotta love these i get   these by the box like 100 at a time and so after  you got your finish on now granted the finish here   is smoother just a little bit than what  he's got he's got um a lot of sandy finishes   i'll figure I'll make it look a little bit better  then a little bit worse and see one grain of sand   see that right there that's one grain of sand that  is why uh and sometimes two guys like jay mixed   a bucket earlier they said dad we just got this  from the material yard and the bottom is hard full   of rocks so we chucked it i thought well it's just  a mistake you know they can't help it if it was   in the rain or got wet that bag will have rocks  and you can't do this kind of finish you could but   it it would instead of me taking say 15 minutes  to do this wall took me three hours probably   picking out little rocks and getting them out of  there here's where this two dollar brush comes in   you take it hit your weep hit that weep screed  and i'm not using the tip i'm using the sides   get rid of it and here go straight up  straight up and when you go straight up   that leaves the mud on it a lot better  if you go down you pull the mud off   that's why we always go straight up and this  little two dollar brush is your best friend so   i just wanted to point that out guys because  we just happened to be doing this we're   we're having fun visiting tiburon i remember  in the 80s and 90s we did about 20 custom homes   here in tiburon i was when i had a big gigantic  crew because i was uh ambitious but i learned   it's very difficult to have more than three guys  and have everybody work in harmony especially when   you're young and you're full of testosterone  and your family got problems your wife got   problems you got problems everybody got problems  i stick with family all right guys we'd take you   behind the swamp lens and show you that but it's  identical to that wall there it's just color code   maintenance-free finish what does that mean like a  brick when it gets wet it darkens and the idea is   if water ever goes through this it hits the paper  and it comes out of these weep holes down here   anyway we thought we'd show you the final although  behind there he did some uh odd stuff like the   building doesn't go square it goes it arcs because  of the tree but so we don't want to go back there   and show you that kind of stuff anyway my name  is kirk Jason on the camera we thank you guys for   watching and as usual see you guys on the next one  hi everybody we reached the end of another video   which means i get to do the fun part i get to say  thank you all for watching if you like what we do   please like and subscribe so we can keep making  content for you and as always if you're looking   to purchase any of the tools or materials you see  us using these videos you can usually find those   at your local plastering yard or if you'd like to  help support us in the process you can buy them   from our website our amazon affiliate links  and we'll make a little dough in the process   there more importantly i get to introduce all  you fine folks to the newest member of the   giordano plastering clan this is my lovely baby  avery and of course my beautiful partner sarah   as you can see we've already picked out avery's  first trowel so when they get a little older they   can come to the job site and learn from their dad  and my dad the plaster master just like i got to   as usual we thank all you folks for  watching and we will see you on the next one

Channel: Kirk Giordano plastering Inc.

Views: 28,276

Rating: 4.9376621 out of 5

Keywords: cracking in stucco walls, cracking in new stucco, stucco cracks, why stucco/plaster cracks, stucco videos, how to plaster, how to plaster a wall, how to stucco a wall, plastering tutorials, beginning plastering, plastering for beginners, learning to plaster, plastering by the experts, stucco advice, stucco textures, Rendering plaster, DIY plastering, learn to plaster, how to plaster a ceiling, how to lath, plaster videos, how to stucco, Youtube plastering

Id: UGdniKlGd4w

Length: 21min 22sec (1282 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 12 2021