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Stucco is a common finish for most home constructions and can be vital not only for a house's overall look but also for its protection. But since it is known to need the personal touch of a professional, the decision in finding someone to properly do your stucco in Tulsa, OK needs a lot of consideration. The question is: How can you do that if you’re still asking, “What is it anyway? What is it made of?”
What is Stucco and how is it Used?
Stucco is also known as a Portland Cement plaster, a type of siding that is hard and durable, used for both internal and external parts of a structure. While there are ready-mixed stucco products in the market, it is usually made from cement, sand, lime, and of course, water –all of which are mixed together on-site. It is normally applied over a galvanized wire mesh which serves as the stucco’s foundation and adhesive to the rest of the structure.
Professional brick contractors in Tulsa, OK can apply stucco by hand or by machine. This can be done on concrete walls, frame structures, cinder blocks, clay bricks, or even adobe. It is usually done in either two processes: three-coat stucco or one-coat stucco.
Three-coat Stucco
This is the traditional process of applying stucco, involving paper and wire for the lath, a scratch coat, a brown coat, and the finish coat. The scratch coat is the base layer made of Portland cement, sand, lime, and water. When applied, horizontal lines are scratched onto it, for adhesive purposes. Meanwhile, the brown coat is coated over the scratch layer with a Darby or a long trowel for flattening and smoothing. And after that, the finish is spread with a hawk and trowel and can be applied in all sorts of textures, depending on the aesthetics you’re going for. These coat layers are applied on the lath one at a time with a thickness of 3/8 inch, 3/8 inch, and 1/8 inch respectively. Nowadays, these coats are available in different colors so that there’s no more need to paint the surfaces afterward.
One-coat Stucco
This pertains to a mixture of Portland cement, fibers, sand, chemicals, and water. Most people are confused by this process due to its name because one-coat stucco actually consists of two layers. There was a time when even the colored finish coat was blended into the mixture, but this resulted in uneven texture and color, so the process was later improved to become a two-coat process. In this case, the scratch and brown coats are combined into a single application and are coated over a rigid foam board and lath, before the finish coating is applied.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Stucco
Whether you go for three-coat or one-coat, stucco is still low-cost, durable, and versatile. It can be applied to almost all sorts of surfaces, such as concrete, bricks, wood, or even steel. It’s even fire-resistant, so in a way, it boosts the safety of your home.
However, stucco also has its drawbacks. The main disadvantage would be its porous nature, which means water can seep through it quite easily, causing quick degeneration of the material. This also means that the house, as a whole, can be vulnerable to moisture damage, such as molds or frame decay over time.
Conclusion
All this basically shows that stucco is a great material to use on your sidings, being versatile, convenient, and inexpensive, but these are balanced by its drawbacks which are usually more problematic in wetter areas. It takes a true expert to know how to construct the stucco around your home to minimize the disadvantages and maximize the benefits, so you’ll really have to put great thought in your decisions once you begin looking for someone to do your stucco.
We at Brick1 Masonry create the highest quality ofs stucco in Tulsa, OK. We guarantee high satisfaction through any and all of our services. These services are holistic and thorough, which means that we can do whatever you would require of us, whether that’s stucco application or repair. Get in touch with us now, and feel free to browse through the rest of our website to know more about us and our services. Here at Brick1 Masonry, we get the job done wherever, however, no matter how big or small. And that also goes for stucco.
