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what to do about cracks in stucco?

I have many hairline and more than hairline cracks (width of a dollar bill) in my 18 month old stucco over wood frame addition. Stucco was painted with a masonry paint. Cracks are horizontal at 24" o.c. and general alligator cracking. Cracks not due to movement (per structural engineer). Seemingly due to water infiltration (this will be corrected in spring) and bad stucco job-lath put on too tight, wrong sand was used in mix, only 2 thick layers that were put on??? A different mason looked at work and said it was horrible. What to do? I see my options as paint with elastomeric paint (I don't want to do as I want stucco to breathe), re-wire and restucco (expensive), caulk cracks and repaint (will look awful-so many cracks) or just leave it (will water come in? cause mold etc?). Any suggestions?

Reply to
rob
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If the substrate is bad then even a new layer of stucco will crack again. The QuickCrete stucco patch (small bags) has fiberglass mixed with it (1" fibers or so) which makes it much less likely to crack. You might be able to sand blast the paint off then plaster up another final coat of stucco with the fiberglass reinforcing additive.

With cracks so thin, direct patching may be useless unless you gouge out some more material to make a bigger patch. Its hard to make any patch invisible.

I would leave it for a year and see how it performs. Water intrusion from a hairline crack on the face is less of a problem than it getting behind due to a poorly designed roof line. Any small amount of water will get back out since you are letting it breathe and should be stopped by the builders paper even if it is nailed up too tightly.

Reply to
PipeDown

Are you saying the width of a dollar bill or the thickness of a dollar bill? The difference could infulence my answer.

Reply to
tmurf.1

thickness of a dollar bill. or thickness of a credit card.

Reply to
rob

thickness of a dollar bill or a credit card. a little more than hairline crack.

Reply to
rob

thickness of a dollar bill or a credit card. a little more than hairline crack.

Reply to
rob

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