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Superior Roofing

February 24, 2016


Stucco installation has been the go-to outer home substance for centuries. Obviously, we have evolved dramatically and have stucco installation techniques that are durable and last year after year with never having to repair your stucco walls.

The installation of stucco is very popular in California and throughout the United States. You will see the majority of homes finished with stucco and for a good reason.

Superior Roofing has mastered the stucco installation over the years and would like to share our basic guide of how we go about applying stucco. So when hiring Superior Roofing you have an understanding of our process. We always abide by all building codes and use the highest quality products so your stucco installation is a success.

The beginning phase of your stucco installation

We will begin the installation of your stucco by applying a waterproof building paper that we will ensure no liquids can enter the home. Additionally, our crew members will fasten your building paper with quality galvanized nails to ensure your building paper is secured properly.

The next step of the beginning stucco phase would be to apply weep screens over your building paper. The main purpose of installing weep screens if the water was to ever get in the middle of your walls the weep screen will allow it to be released and not trap it inside and cause complications. Now, on the contrary, this weep screen will also prevent any water from migrating up and interfering with your stucco wall.

Along with the weep screens comes the casing beads and stucco netting. Now we usually install stucco in three coats. The stucco netting is usually 17-20 gauge thick so it sticks out and allows the cement to key inside of the netting. A very important step when stuccoing your home.

As an addition to the stucco netting, we will establish control joints along the netting to reduce shrinkage and also corner trim to make sure we have a nice smooth finish to the corners of your home.

Time for the stucco mix

Stucco Machine Mixer With a nice and clean install of your building paper, weep screen, and other accessories it is time to start the mix of your stucco. This includes quality stucco mix such as quikrete and water. We will be looking for a high bond strength mix for a successful stucco project.

The consistency of the mix is crucial here as we do not want our mixture to be watery or dry. Too watery and the stucco won’t stick to our wall and if it’s too dry we won’t be able to spread it properly. So the key is to find a medium where your mix will spread level and sleek on your walls.

1st stucco coat:  The Scratch coat

After we have got ourselves a nice consistency of stucco mixes it’s time to spread the 1st coat. It’s always recommended by the professionals to start from the bottom of your walls and work your way to the top spreading the mix with a hawk and trowel. When we have a good layer of stucco mix we will smooth it out with a straight edge making it approximately 3/8 of an inch thick.

We won’t get perfect here as this is just our first coat and we will be applying more coats down the line.

Allow the stucco to dry enough to where you can press a fingerprint indent. Then we will go over the first coat with a hand rake and allow the scratch coat to dry for 24 hours while keeping the stucco nice and moist so we do not allow it to shrink or crack on us. And this is why we call this the scratch coat.

2nd stucco coat:  The Brown coat

Time to mix up another batch for our second coat which is called the brown coat. We will be more careful to make sure this coat is more to our liking. In comparison to the scratch coat, we will begin to spread the mix from the bottom and work our way to the top.

Essentially we are doing the same thing here as we did on the scratch coat so no reason to go over this again but instead of scratching our coat at the end of the application with a rake we are going to float the base coat until it is even and smooth. It is important here that we fill any gaps with the excess base coat.

Again we will allow this coat to dry for 24 hours and make sure it stays moist to prevent shrinkage.

3rd stucco coat:  The finish

Lastly, we have arrived at the finish stage in your stucco project and before we start we want to make sure your brown coat has dried and is ready for the last coat.

This is why we love stucco installation we can now choose many colors for your home and give it the type of texture finish you desire.  Check out the type of finishes we can accomplish for you:

  • Smooth finish
  • Heavy or light finish
  • Catfish finish
  • Sand float finish
  • Dash finish
  • Lace finish
  • Santa Barbara finish

Superior Roofing has applied many finishes to many homes making our customers extremely proud of their new stucco installation.

We hope you found this basic guide helpful and if you have more questions and want more details we would love to give you a free consultation and quote.

(661) 679-6923

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