howdy folks Kirk and Jayson here with Kirk Giordano plastering today what I want to
show you is difficult bulging and cracking stress cracks because there's no expansion screed at the
bottom of this house here generally there's a drip screed or we call it a weep screed it's put on the
mud sill and it allows the stucco to breathe but it's on the foundation here so something's going
to give and the fact that this is cracked right here this is buckled it's not a big deal in fact
it's it's normal under the circumstances what what I I came here and I was talking with the
homeowner and I said you know if I were you you can take you can take the whole stucco off to
the window here and and replace it all that's the right way to do it and he says I don't want to do
that what's the other way I said well this stucco was bulging out a bit I said you can get some real
screws they're super super strong screws and Lag bolted kind of back into the frame and this was
out to here so it really worked he he drilled some holes here and then he pulled it he sucked
it right back into there and a few other places here now he said about a few years back he had a
fellow do this now this is smooth that all they did was they put it on with a trowel and left
it now this is what we consider a - finish we call it a - finish because like in the old days
kneeling on sticker bushes in the old days they called - assault so you mix up some soupy mud
and you throw it on that's what they did here and that's what they have here is a heavy float finish
so this is a bit too heavy and what I'm going to do is I'm going to take my trowel and just
where they got it all over this vent get it off you get the idea just and I'm using the heel the
heel of my trial that's the furthest I don't want to start using it like a hammer this way I use my
heel I get it off best I can and over here where we got this crack I use the same thing the heel
it looks like somebody put some interior plaster here you can't do that guys well now we've got
a crack going on here well you always uncover something when you start to do the exploration
now I didn't know this guy was going to be here and I'll tell you something I'm looking at what
they have here the papers intact which is a good sign papers intact that's a good sign we get all
that stuff out of here I'll show you a quick way we repair this okay I can see the wood lath here
generally what I'll do is I'll take some caulking the paper is in great condition and I'll put a
little bit of caulking in here and because I'm not certain of what's going on here I want to put some
caulking back there too although the paper is not broke little caulking is not going to hurt it and
I'm going to take this same procedure and follow this crack up but that's not what I'm going to do
right now what I'm going to do now is I'm going to take some plaster weld or weld Crete this is
a bonding agent which allows stucco to adhere to a painted surface over here where they have
a smooth finish I'm going to put it on heavy and cover that smooth finish because I want to give it
to correct finish and over here where they have the - finish I'm going to skim coat that - and
I have the luxury of being right here up front where I could see what I'm doing and I want to
bring this stucco here out to the wood strip here so I don't really need to take it down any further
I'm going to give this about five minutes time for this bonding agent to dry a little bit and
explore what we got going up here and what I'm going to do is I'm going to take some stucco
and just go right over this I'm going to put a little bit more caulking inside here inside
this hole and in about five minutes we'll restart that Cameron I'll show you how we quickly skim it
and fix it all right guys we've allowed this weld Cree test set up just a little bit and explore it
a little bit more here guys keep in mind if I was to just put stucco in here it would be rigid and
we'll it would crack again sooner a little bit of caulking here gets it a little bit of flex will
this wreak RAC absolutely is the best to pull it all off absolutely but again for the sake of just
showing you how to quickly correct it cosmetically now what I'm going to do here is I'm pushing this
in tight pushing it in tight squeezing it in there a lot a lot of elbow grease right there guys here
push it in tight and whoever did this for me they actually used an interior plaster patches
never use that on the ex outside guys because when it gets wet it resorts back to what it was
originally and that is powder okay here where they skimmed it I'm going to reskin it myself
only difference is I'm leaving a little bit of aggregate sand just these fellows came in here
and they did just like this and left it like that I'll show you how we achieve this float finish
using what they left us okay now here where they have the - finish and you say what's the - finish
that just means they threw it on with a - brush they mixed up some soupy cement and they they
liked this bucket here it's it's got hard cement they mixed it up soupy put a - brush in and flung
it on there and that's what you have here but that's not what they started off with so we we
give them what they originally have all right now we allow that to set a couple seconds I move this
bucket out my way get this out of here and this is called a sponge float sponge float just means
it's a sponge with a handle and what I want to do now is kind of a crappy one but I can make
this work what I want to do now is I want to bring out the aggregate I take the water if this was dry
it would just push it in like a trial but right now it's you see waters coming out so I'm going
to start up top and work my way down and generally what I'm going to do is I'm squishing it in there
I'm going in there a little tighter than it looks use a little bit of elbow grease guys more skill
than anything and what I'm doing is I'm looking at this finish that's what we call a heavy float
finish and this is what I'm doing float so I bring the aggregate out and I push it in there
tight that way less likely to hairline and we just follow what we have here and now that I'm starting
to drag it I'm going to add more water okay I'm going to add more water because it's starting to
drag now which means it's not going to match now let me get this nasty little rosebush out of the
way I'm going to take the sponge load and sponge this meaning I'm going to bring the aggregate
out that just means bring the sand out before a second ago it had a smooth trial finish so when
they painted it it enhanced the flaws painting does not cover flaws it enhances them so there
it is that matches here now for the top piece I wanted to compress this in there tight and we've
done that now and now I'm just pressing it in there again tight and this is called feathering
in the edge the feather in the edge feather it in make it pretty Wow like so and now where they have
the - finish this is that area that they threw it on they shouldn't have thrown it on they should
have used a sponge float and just brought it out and so what I'm going to do is just like I
did on those on the top and as well as the side there I'm going to bring out the aggregate and
this is feathering in the joint and by the way guys that bonding agent I use you could use any
color bonding agent I've seen green blue white majority of my white and the cement I'm using is
what we call a rapid set you can buy Dom Depot or Lowe's or any of the major hardware stores rapid
that means it sets fast guys it sets real fast so I'm taking it here cleaning up my wood and
unlike the other fella he didn't clean his vent Oh Kurt please vent clean that vent get all that
crap off that way the homeowner won't yell at me and said Kirk you're no better than the last guy
we take it we bring this and out bring it out that's what when painted we'll match it real
well last thing I have is little details here and there I could see them because I'm right on
the wall camera may not show them but there's that right here just look at it match it just
takes an eye for it and pretty soon we've got a perfect match now and that's that's matching two
to three different finishes that's fixing some odd stuff that they have here with the wall that
is waterproofing taking care of a lot of details and we just clean this up again right there get
all that stucco off the vent anyhow folks my name is Kirk Jason on the camera that's how you do a
simple fix like this it's a lot of stuff going on but if you know what you're doing piece of
cake anyhow Jason and I thank you for watching and as usual we'll see you guys on the next one
you