hello there folks, Kirk and Jason here with Kirk Giordano plastering. Today I want to show
you an issue that these folks were having and they were concerned with why? you guys might have the
same issue I thought I'd explain it because I know the reason why this happened. Look at this
house here. Okay, you see the wall here, I looked at the texture and I said well gee whiz, somebody put
a color coat finish and it's probably Chablis or French vanilla over a house that had this
type of a finish right here. It's a painted stucco finish and you pressure wash it, apply a bonding agent
then you put a maintenance-free skip trowel finish what is maintenance-free skip trowel
finish mean? like a brick, the brick gets wet it darkens, then when dryer conditions occur, it goes
right back to its original state. This has been on for over 20 years and it's going to stay on
for a hundred more, why did this part come off? The the homeowner said, well gee how come this is staying
on and this is not? that's the easy question guys you get a fellow right now they're mowing lawns,
all over here there's a lot of lawns, the dirt goes up in the air it settles, where does this
settle, it settles on porches, window sills, roofs you name it. So what they did was they pressure
wash this right here. They didn't pressure wash this well enough, and so what's happening is,
it's all coming off. And how do you, how do you really get it all off? Well if you do what
I'm doing right here that's a start, but I also have a pressure washer with me, that the pressure
washer it's gas a one at 35 or 3,000 psi, plus I have a turbo tip on it. Now what they also had here is
they had a line going this way, and they had a bunch of caulking on it, you see that caulking
I've already removed it. And what I said is, gee all this caulking guys that's not a
fix, caulking is, that's okay, you see they caulked it right here, and they thought well gee that'll
hold it. that's not going to hold it nor cosmetically is it going to make it look attractive?
So what I did was I my handy-dandy rod, I took a grinder with a diamond blade put it here and just
grinded a line in there, why did we grind a line in there? This is a natural expansion joint now, so now
we've got a natural expansion joint separating the two different substrates. This is the house this is
the concrete steps, so the two are moving, this way it allows them to continue to move. Now
I'm going to go ahead and keep taking this off here you see how this stuff comes off, Caulking
was not really the right method that repair this, so what I'm going to do now is I'm going
to take a pressure washer and here's what they should have done 20 years ago you pressure wash
not only this part, you pressure walk here, and here. this removes all the dust, dirt, grime, moss, and when
you place a bonding agent on that surface that's clean enough to eat off, that's you want a
surface if you're going to apply a bonding agent on. I tell folks this, and they always laugh, but you
want that surface clean enough to eat off, that way your bonding agent really adheres that way
your next color coat really adheres. So I'm going to do some prep work here and when I take my pressure
washer and I start pressure washing this, I'm going to pressure wash this way what happens if I pressure wash, say this way? the pressure washer is so strong I will take off the finish here. I don't
want to take that finish off and lastly, I said this is either Chablis or French vanilla I can
look at a patch right here, and I talked to the homeowner I said who did this and was it
done within 10 years, he says yeah. How'd you know? I said I can tell because it's a different color our
color even though it's this it is French vanilla I put it my color chart up to a niche that says, French
vanilla I've got the French vanilla I said well gee we'll do it and we'll fill this will
keep moving and that's okay, but it was separated too and the color I'm going to put here is also
french vanilla will it match this one when it dries completely? No, it'll be a tint or two lighter or
darker, but anyway I thought I'd show just some of the preliminary steps that you have to do if you
got to know about this stuff, because the application is 30% knowledge is the other 70% to know what
the heck you're doing before you even get started so all your folks who send me things and say gee
whiz, how come the porch separated but the house didn't it's separated because they didn't we pressure
wash this well enough and didn't consider the fact that dust settles here, and comes down and
just a natural course of things. so we're going to go ahead and mix up some color coat. Take this off
and I'll show you how we spread it out and match it in. Okay, guys, we're going to spread this down
first I'm going to show you what we use see this tip right here this is called a turbo tip guys it
gives it a lot of extra force so we got 3000 psi plus that turbo tip, to get this off everything
came off with that tip there, in fact, if you touch it'll make you bleed and it goes through your
boot as far as the color Jay, just mix this color up here's how you can tell if the color is going to
match guys, quick tip, okay you wet the wall. I'm gonna wet the wall right here then you put it
up to it, and that's it's the right color because they happen to have the same contract but it's 20
years later. Okay, so we're going to take the color coat and I'm going to spread it using a swimming
pull trow this pull trowel, it's got a square end right here it's not a complete radius, I've been
using these for 20 years kind of partial to them, this blue stuff, that's a bonding agent nothing
adhere without a bonding agent, but a bonding agent is only as good as what it's gone over
if you go over a dusty wall with a bonding agent it's useless, so just for the sake of spreading
this out I'll show you how we do it. Now earlier I was showing you guys the crack that expansion
joint, I created, yeah, I created the expansion joint but if Jay, points to that expansion joint you'll see
I filled that expansion joint with caulking now that particular caulking I used for that expansion
joint is called Sicka high flex, it drys within an hour, so while it was, while it's dried, I then
put, Weld Crete, over that. why would I do go through such extremes because the Weld create, will allow
this color coat to adhere to the caulking, because this is a color coat, it's a maintenance-free finish
here, so basically, I created an expansion joint this is always going to flex, it's going to flex
like that so when it rains and the ground lifts and these two separate that's going to lift and
move with it so we don't get that nasty crack now can it re-crack? Absolutely, no amount of caulking
is going to stop a 100-ton home and say a 20-ton porch from moving. It doesn't work that way, ground
movement it will also move, you do the best you can with what you have available. But you have to
have used common sense too, and note that, what we're doing right here is purely cosmetic, and it
has no structural strength but it's going to look a lot prettier than it did before, so what I
do is I'm using the exact same color they use I'm using the same grit they used you say, gee
what's the grit well the grit is either fine which is silica sand 20/30 which is medium or
16/20 as just technical talk for stucco. 16/20 being the heaviest grit available, now if we were to take
you around the house you would see why they went with this heavy texture. This heavy texture was
done everywhere because this house had about what had a lot of patchworks they had several different
contractors that had an idea of what they were doing, they weren't all that great, and if you're
not all that great, we'll leave an eyesore of a patch left a couple of my time, you don't get
pretty good not leaving a patch or two, that you have to correct that builds wisdom when you have
to redo something you think gee whiz. I don't want to do that again, and that's how you learn.
Everybody makes a mistake. what you don't want to keep doing is making them. Make your mistake once.
you do a bad patch you end up having to fix it well that's the beginning of wisdom but if you
keep doing that, then you stay stupid. Anyway I'm feathering in this little bit right here and and
now what I'm going to do is I'm going to allow this say five minutes to dry, and five minutes
right now I'm looking at and feeling the sun, it's absorbing the moisture right out of here. It's
about 75 degrees kind of nice, I'm going to get a brush and brush this in and switch trowels, get
rid of my Kongo trowel and grab a smaller trowel. and in one in one minute, I'll show you how we
texture this. All right guys, I went and got myself a handy dandy brush it doesn't have to be a pretty
brush, it's like a dollar brush and what you do is just feather this in. and you always wet the
wall first when you're feathering a color into a color, even if it's the same color you hit that
wall first, that way it blends in better, and you just use your brush and clean it up, clean up all
the little stuff here and again what I tell the folks here is we can pretty that up we can make
it a lot nicer and we can do everything within our power to stop it from re-cracking but it
can. Alright now, what I'm going to do is switch trowels. Notice this trowel here it's 20-inches, it's kind of big. You guys your homeowners go with these right here, 12 by 5 square easier to
handle now, I'm going to go to a 16-inch trowel. why? because I like using a 16 trowel, I started using
them about 25 years ago when I did swimming pools, and I've been using them ever since. Okay,
so we're going to texture this to match that finish there, now I'm gonna start way over here,
cuz I'm gonna work from left to right now I told her we could match the finish real close, but yeah
there's always somebody who can say well gee whiz that's not a perfect match, well unless you do it
that day it's almost incredibly difficult to get a perfect match, but seeing that I have done about
oh, I don't know a thousand different textures, homes, additions, you name it, I'm pretty good at this stuff
here, so take it down and I'm pulling it, and if you notice what they got they had a fellow do
exactly what I'm doing. I once did a job where the guy says gee nobody could match that finish
and I said that's because the guy's going with his left hand, so I match it. I just use, switched
hands. Anyway, we put a little bit of extra mud here and generally, because I'm a texture I
don't want to spill any going over like that now when this dries it match that, because it always
goes on darker than paint. is different from these porous finishes. Porous finishes go on dark and
when they dry like a brick they lighten up, so I'm just skipping it just the way these fellows
skip theirs, and keep in mind they put a heavy skip trowel finish because they were hiding some stuff. I
wouldn't do a homeowner any justice. For me to show all these bad patches here and there because I just
wouldn't be nice. Anyway way to take it down and when I get one more hawk full, I'll show you how
we complete it and you look at it can I wait it an extra hour - yeah could, I mean I put this
on pretty much immediately but what I do. if I wait, if I have waited another hour this would all
been dried and light I could have did it but if I put it on immediately I just put the texture on a
little heavier so we put the texture on a little. a bit heavier and I can do it immediately. Okay right
when I come into this joint here, I'm gonna do something that is a little bit different. Okay, the
joints I'm going to take this down here make it heavy I'm making it heavy okay now we're going
to go straight up here, and tie the two in and of the joint just going to go vertically, vertically
and at a different, different level that way between the two of these. You can you can see
they're a bit separate and they are going to move differently because one's a porch and one's a wall
and they are not connected so they're always going to move guys anyway you see where I'm going with
that and more importantly, when you folks call me and say, gee Wizz, how come house is still
on and the porch is not? Well porch's you have to take into consideration the fact that moss,
dirt and everything is up here and you've got to really do your prep a little bit better, anyhow my
name is Kirk, Jason on the camera we thank you for watching this quick little fix and as usual, we'll
see you guys on the next one.
once again folks we thank you for watching and I really enjoy all your comments if you guys like this video please click the like button down below and also if you enjoy
what we do subscribe to our channel so we can keep making these videos for you my name is Kirk
and Jason we thank you for watching and from the entire giordano family we'll see on the next one.