Stucco and plaster jobs in progress-updated February 16, 2016

Real cement stucco replaced with real cement stucco
in Springfield, Virginia.

Phil shows off his new REAL cement stucco. The color is a custom color from EXPO stucco in San Diego. More details here..	There always seem to be trees in the way of my pictures. More details here.. .
Old 1960's stucco was in sorry shape. After years of leaks, patches and the fact it was poorly done in the beginning, the old stucco had to come off. More details here..	Who you gonna call ? Stucco Busters Please click for more info about this project:
Finished wall. The finish is, of course, REAL portland cement and REAL sand. The color is a custom color from EXPO stucco.Maurice at EXPO duplicated a color from the Sherwin-Williams color fan. More about this project:	Garage is stuccoed to match.   Click for More:

100 year old stucco replaced in Chevy Chase, MD

One of the reasons for the stucco failure is the old steel flashing had rotted away, rotting the wood framing under the window. More info here...	Lack of flashing OVER the window causes rot BELOW the window. A view of the sheathing shows insect damage, probably by carpenter ants. The framing and sheathing were repaired by carpenters. Click for More here...
Sometime in the past, the downspouts were stopped up, leading to rot. More info here...	Fast forward to the finished wall showing our curved band at the bottom. Details like this show off the versatility of stucco. The REAL cement finish is colored using paint tint.More here...

Tudor stucco replaced
in Arlington, Virginia

This old stucco on this tudor house had been patched up and re coated and was ready to be replaced. We matched the finish on an addition done by the late Eugene Mason. Mr. Mason used to recommend me to a lot of jobs.	Tudor trim boards need flashing just like windows to prevent water infiltration. This bottom trim board is flashed, then overlapped with two layers of tar paper and self furring metal lath.
Diagonal trim boards are flashed as well. This is another Frequently Neglected Thing, or FNT.	A water funnel is prevented by bending the diagonal flashing up the vertical flashing a few inches. This is another Frequently Ignored Detail, or FID.

Stucco addition done by the competition is rescued
in Arlington, Virginia

Our finished addition. The color is used by adding a paint tint to the mortar. This is the back of the same house as above. Please see how we did it...	The finish coat is excessively cracked, probably due to too much shrinkage. The people who did this advertise as stucco contractors.  More details here..
The flashing on the trim boards and windows was angled backwards, deflecting water into the house. Also, there was a big ugly gob of caulk along the outside edge of the panels. See how we fixed it here....	We cut of the stucco back to the sheathing and ripped out the offensive flashing. More about this project....

Plaster ceilings replaced in Baltimore, Maryland

This RC-1 channel is the ticket for furring down old ceilings. The channel screws on one side and floats, taking out half of the wavy gravy from the ceiling. These old joists are always crooked and super hard. We straightened the ceiling more with the basecoat and the finish coat. Please check out the page I made for this project...	Making a gauge, or mixing a batch of white mortar, in this case moulding plaster and lime, on the mortar board. We are working on a 1872 townhouse in the Union Square area of Baltimore. See more here..!!

Patch and Match

TOP LEFT:Pebble dash stucco repaired in Washington, DC.
TOP RIGHT: Heavy pebble dash and floated stucco patched in Arlington, Virginia
BOTTOM LEFT: Party wall is re stuccoed in Reston, Virginia. The wall was a victim of crummy coping. Of course, we patched the coping first.