Howdy Folks Jason and Carl here with Kirk Giordano Plastering,
and today we're going to talk about fixing problem Foundation areas of your stucco. Now,
this is just a cosmetic repair. How many of you have issues where rats or bugs or things
are getting underneath your stucco where the stucco and foundation are not butted up together
perfectly? This is an 80-year-old building; all we're going to do today is fix this area,
so no more insects or rats can get in whatever your issues with your stucco or foundation the
process is usually very similar we pulled back all of this dirt we are going to clean the stucco with
a really strong pressure washer, we're going to apply a bonding agent and probably hang some new
mesh wire with concrete anchors taped on'ed, so that our new stucco will adhere, and we're going to
build this out to where it's true and plum. So to begin you get your big powerful pressure washer
we are cleaning the area very thoroughly, underneath our key.
Today, I'ma show you guys how we put something together, now this I looked at it, and the homeowner
says any idea of how this happened? They said they just bought the house, I said oh yeah, I know how that
happened that was a tree and she said what do you mean a tree? I said well you see that tree right
there at like 200 feet tall, maybe 50 tons, maybe 80 100 tons. I said you had one right here. And
she says, now how you know that? I said because I could see the roots, uh I know all about these
roots redwood trees, Quys. you don't want them too close to the house that one's like that's
that's pretty far from the house, but check this out. Okay, can, I don't know if you can see this but
this is a root, that's a root guys, now Jay they pressure washed this already and all this blue
stuff that's just a bonding agent for these, and while I'm talking I told Jay oh crap, mix me up
some really, really stiff mud because I want to do a scratch coat and the scratch coat is just
um just to put on all this wire in here put every which way is just for
um, kinda looks, it's to hold this mud here, so that, Uw wee, that that's stiff
hopefully, I will be able to spread all this before them buckets get too hard on me. You want Carl to scoop for you?
Yeah, oh yeah, come scoop for good me.
And this texture here, guys. You probably already can see this. That's my brother Lou. Laughing,
I'm kidding, Lou didn't texture that, Lou hod carriers, but occasionally he'll plaster. When
I saw this, I thought, hey, my brother has already been here. He beat me to the punch.
Thanks, Carl, that makes it a lot easier, and all I'm doing, guys, is putting, about six inches on.
I've got a Jay to mix the whole wheelbarrow. We're doing one bucket at a time because we want many
accelerators here. Accelerators will give us our base, and it would be about 90 degrees right now,
so that's working, 90 degrees. We'll set this quick, a little bit more, one more, cool beans, all right.
So with a day like today where we got
oh ,oh man, we got a lot of heat and hot mud, that's working, we need this.
We did a house not too long ago, and we did six inches back to back, to back, to back, around the foundation.
In fact, I will put that into the description if you want to watch how to do six inches.
I'm actually doing six inches here, but I say we did six inches;
we were doing a foundation. The foundation seen better days,
and all I want to do, guys. I don't care if these falls give me the rest. Give it all to me.
This can fall all over the place; that's okay. This is just a base coat. All I want this to
do is to set, and this will set up in about whoo, dang, it's gonna set quick; in fact,
that one's already set, so when you push it in, it Springs it and goes, boing, pops it right back
out no worries, we don't care about that. Now here I've got a lot of play, so I'm just gonna
gently push it in here all I want to do is give myself something to, for the next coat to it adhere.
I do this so often with these accelerators that I
got them down, and again, these wires are to hold it when this is set that will be extremely strong.
The people they said, "Well, what do you recommend?
I said, so have you heard? Have you got other people out here they said, yeah; I said have you heard tear
The whole wall down and put a new concrete foundation in it? And they said, yeah, I said,
I take it you didn't like that idea? What happened to that guy? They said, we shot him.
so they don't want to do that guy? Because there's always going to be somebody who's going to say,
you know, Kirk, there's a better way to do that, That's tear the whole wall
apart, and start from scratch. A lot of people don't like to do that, guys.
Especially when they find out the cost they'd rather do a simple cost like this.
And all we're doing, guys, is filling this up. Dang call. They went ahead and anchored all
this in. Will this crack? Again? I answered that question because when all the roots here rot,
and they will, then that dirt will settle, and when it settles, this is gonna hairline crack.
It's just like the four or five months of rain we had, we had well, I've not seen so many cracked
concrete driveways, cracked walls, everything is cracking, because of all that rain that's
that's just, uh, expansion, so everything expands and settles and shrinks. How much we got left?
We got about two scoops left. Cool beans, I'm just gonna put that I'm gonna put this on guys and then
we're gonna take like 10-minute lunch, uh I'm not gonna put no scratch lines in this because
it's it's already setting, you see that guys? Anybody want to know what kind of cement this is?
Anybody care? This is a lime cement, lime cement unlike Portland, well, it does have Portland in
it, it will flex, so when this moves and it will, uh it'll Flex a little bit more, will it stop it
from hairline forever and ever? There's no product that can do that again, they'd be looking
at tearing the whole wall down and rebuilding it, what's that cost? 25 Grand? They can get
away with uh pennies compared to that, with what we're doing right here, this will prevent
um rodents stuff like that from going in there, but it is not going to uh correct,
the damage that had been done.
Anyway, those, that's it? cool. I'll tell you about those redwood trees, I've seen red redwood trees
where the whole house is lifted and not far from here, where I remember bedding them number
of years back, and I said man I can't help you, I can't do nothing with that, because
it's off the foundation, these roots get I mean they get that big, some a tree like that size they
don't get that big it'll lift a whole house. It'll lift brick walls, it'll lift in everything, anyway.
As soon as we get this done uh I'll show you how we match Lou's finish, for those who might uh
ask the question, hey what kind of mud are you using? 690 BMI reinforced fiber mesh, what other
material can you guys use you could use green core by Quikrete it's got fine sand and you
can get it at Home Depot, you could if you want a heavier finish like heavy sand that sets just
as fast as this if not faster, you go Rapid Set, Rapid-Set, they named it appropriately. It
sets fast, it'll set five minutes if that's what you want, You think wow, man, I'm fast
and I can set it quick, and get the rapid set.
Moving on because this is quite easy for me.
Well, I'll tell you a story about these tree roots, a long time ago.
Well, I got pulled over when I was about 15, for driving my brother's car. I didn't have a license,
and I went to see the judge because I thought it wasn't right to fine me; it was like 150 bucks.
But 50 years ago, man, that was a lot of money, instead, the judge said, boy,
you can't afford it, all right uh.
20 hours to work for the city, and I was adding it up in my head, and I thought, Man, that's like
three days' work. I objected, he said, 40 hours of work. And I thought, oh man, anyway, make a long story
short, I had to go work for the city, and where I ended up working was Castro Valley Community
Center, and they had a big old redwood tree in the parks department right in the front, and Eric.
Eric was the supervisor. He had told me, kirk, Kirk, you're a pretty good worker.
I better not say that. anyway he said you're pretty good worker what I want you to do is
I want you to cut all those branches or limbs for the um it was a redwood tree like that and
all the roots grow on topsoil, so anybody familiar with Castro Valley Community Center, The roots
we're all over the topsoil and he gave me a uh a three-foot ax. a triple ax, that's called, uh so
I had this triple ax and I was doing this all day and got so bored, I was 15 years old so, I remember,
I'm looking at the mud while I'm talking, thinking, you got enough? is this just right, before
so you don't lose that mud, while you're getting carried away with a goofy story? Anyway
I, I was so tired of cutting roots, that.
I started throwing this ax at the tree, and the first time I did it, it stuck, the ax stuck in the
tree. a Triple Ax, that's a long-handled ax and I thought whoa, that is so cool. And I kept doing it
15 years old, I remember all Eric, he came by looked out and says, oh my God, what happened to the tree?
I said oh crap and I looked at the tree myself, it had like 200 marks where the
bark came off, where I was kept throwing that triple ax, that's how bored I was, when I was
uh, 15. I wasn't even thinking about, man, you're damaging property. Anyway, it just reminds me of
that time when I look at that tree right there. I shouldn't be telling people that goofy story but
I talk about a whole bunch of useless stuff when I'm bored. Anyway, we got almost enough
and here's another thing you guys can do too because this this mud right here I'm
gonna need a little bit more. This got to set 10 more minutes. How do I know?
Because I'm an expert, I do this for a living guys. Say, like this big blowout right here.
Hit that, and you just put a texture on it. That's My Lou texture.
This right here, shave it off , shave it off, and pretty it up a little bit, Anyway,
We're gonna give this a couple more minutes because I need 10 minutes there, then we'll
texture this and I'll show you guys how we do that too. Let me show you how to put
a soupy texture on this, and if nothing else you guys if you got a buddy who just bought a
house or your mom your dad, cousin and you see him planting a redwood tree next to the house
tell them don't do that. A redwood tree should be like 80 feet from the house because when
it grows that's probably 80 years old. It will tear your house up, anyway, so what I did now guys
to, to reinforce this, to get it a little bit stronger, we take a little bit of water, always use water
guys bring it upwards, upward, upward, upwards, get that stuff going upward that way if it wants to fall
we're pulling it up it sets with the water and it dries hard. Now what I did is, we had that very
stiff mud, I took some of the water here put it in here mixed it up and uh let's see, I guess I can
use this let's find out that texture right there is a soupy texture, that just means a
lot of water uh I take that same mud that I was using guys same stuff and soup it up
now, I could look at this that's got 20-30 coats of paint on it, so
we're gonna try to match that and all that is is a blob job, guys, just a blob.
Come on now, come on now.
We want it to fall, we wanted to drip, we want it to drip down, so a lot of excess mud,
and what we can do is if this is too blobby, we go back over with a sponge and float, this right here,
so let's see maybe one or two more hawks. We'll have this licked, and it after everything is
put on, guys, then you look at it and see if you want to knock things down, go every which way too.
And go that way, one thing about when you make soupy mud, it gets all over the place,
Okay, get stuff out of there.
I told Jay well, if this falls like it, could we just put it right back up? I bet many people say,
"Hey, Kirk, how do you make a stick? It doesn't want to stick. Make it richer, guys. Rich, if it
won't stick. That means you have too much sand in it, so don't be afraid to use more stucco.
I get it on the YouTube channel? Lately, I've got so many people to say, how do you make
it adheres? It doesn't want to adhere. Uh, make it richer, guys. Make it a little bit richer,
and it will adhere. Don't forget the bonding agent if you're going over a painted surface, now
that's a little slobbery for this, so look at it. Take a trowel and go sideways. The idea is
you get as close as you can to match what you started of with. Okay, all right, and keep my foot in here.
Yep, yep, yep, all right, so let's see, That's about it, guys. We have a lot more work we're
doing, but Jay said well, let's show this piece on how to do this, just in case, there are many reasons
to do this. Guys' foundation falls apart, trees lift it, car hits your house,
Millions of reasons to do this. It's effective strong as crap, or the strongest cement stucco. Anyway, my name is Kirk, Jason Carl, hanging out around here,
Lou mixing. Hope you didn't hear all that stuff. Anyway, my name is Kirk. We'll see you guys on
the next one. All right, folks. We want to thank you all for watching. If you enjoy our videos,
please like And subscribe so we can keep making these videos for everybody, as always.
We'll see you on the next one.