I am turning a porch that was originally part of the outside wall of the house, into an interior room. I want to make the two walls that are now stucco, look smoother. Does not have to be drywall smooth, maybe kind of a venetian plaster look. Any ideas how I would do this?
Thanks,
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Since you are going to have to open up parts of the wall to make your room legal as far as electrical code dictates, you may as well just sheetrock over the wall when you are done adding the proper number of electrical receptacles for your new interior room...
~~ Evan
The whole point of my question is to NOT have to sheetrock over the stucco walls. The walls in question already have the proper electrical outlets on them and the new walls are going to have sheetrock over them.
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Several skim coats of stucco mix, applied over a few days would make the two walls smooth.
I can't speak, if the walls are painted or how the skim coats would stick on painted stucco.
Are the exterior walls a heavy knock down texture?
It appears that they have been painted one time and the are very rough stucco. The mechanical bond will probably be fine I would think. I did not know if you could use the stucco mix to smooth the walls out to the height of the bumps on it now or slightly higher so it would kind of look like plaster once painted. I really do not want to tear them down and sheet rock it .
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Plaster weld (or whatever is available in your area) wouldn't hurt.
Oren,
Is there such a thing as a layers of stucco that are too thin? I plan on skimming with about a quarter inch on the exterior.
What I have read is that the gypsum based material is very sensitive to moisture and that you need an air space between like a lath. However, that being said, just how much moisture are they talking about. Being the wall is inside are they talking about real humid days, or direct contact with a substantial amount of water. The drywall compound would be the easiest to do, but will it last.
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Dryng type joint compound isn't gypsum, it is calcium carbonate (powdered limestone) and starch. OTOH, the setting type compound is gypsum (plaster). That's why it sets. All that doesn't much matter, just a point of order :)
It is true that drying compound will resoften with moisture; that's why you can smooth it with a damp sponge. It is also true that an airspace would be better. The question is, how wet do these walls get? If they feel damp, DW compound wouldn't be good. Even if they did feel a bit damp, the compound isn't going to go sliding off but you would most likely have problems with paint.
Just humidity in the air is NP. The interior walls on my screen porch have a DW compound "stucco"; it has been so humid the last few weeks that just blinking causes one to break out in a profuse sweat but the "stucco" is fine.
If it were me, I'd tape a piece of clear plastic onto the wall and see if I got any water condensing on the plastic. If no, compound away to your hearts content; if yes, it depends on how much...if any appreciable amount (which I doubt if the walls are painted) then a sealer such as Seal Krete might be in order first.
You could also use thinset instead of compound. With it, it wouldn't matter if the walls oozed a tad but you couldn't smooth it with a sponge after it sets; before, yes. By "wouldn't matter" I'm thinking of adhesion; if the walls transmit moisture you'd have problems with paint regardless of what you put over the stucco unless there was an air space.
BTW, how are you going to insulate the former exterior wall? Or do you live where that isn't a big thing?
There is no doubt that your best bet would be to attach pressure treated furring strips to the wall and put sheetrock on them. The existing electrical outlets could be fixed with electrical box extenders. Going that way, you would also be able to add sheet foam insulation complete with vapor barrier at the expense of losing 2" or so of space.
I can't answer as to what is "too thin". But I'm sure .25 inch of skim coat is fine. Where are you?
The former exterior walls are now interior walls of the revised porch. The new exterior walls are pretty much all windows except for about 2 feet under them which will be insulated. The stucco walls are really not wet or subject to any outside elements. I just did not know if the drying compound ir setting compound could be used for the smoothing out operation successfully. I will do the tape plastic test just to check, but I do not expect any moisture.
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Albuquerque, NM.
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