plaster and stucco jobs in progress Oct.8,2009-Virginia, northern VA, Washington, DC area

Jobs in progress-updated October 8, 2009
Over 10 years of jobs in progress, update # 107 !

Old painted stucco re-surfaced
Jaime's building
Richmond, Virginia


A light rain shows of the mottling of colors of the REAL portland cement stucco. We cast the numbers with color stucco finish. Color is from Expo stucco in San Diego. I made the grey color on the bands using paint tint from Sherwin Williams. More details...	Decorative bands and curved walls show off the stucco on this older deco style building. More details...

Here is our method of re-coating painted stucco. Many readers write to ask how we do it. First, old painted stucco is chipped with an electric chipping hammer. The idea is to open the pores and have rough porous areas for a good solid bond. Then a scratch coat (first coat)of cement mortar is applied using an acrylic bonding admixture. .This method assures us of a permanent bond and that our work should last forever. More info here...	Silicone molds are made for casting numbers for the address. Numbers are solid cement mortar and not flimsy foam like you see on so many new commercial buildings. More details...


Nothing much uglier than a sloppy patch on a pebble dash house. Loose areas and sloppy patches are torn off and filled.	25 percent 3/4 gravel is blended with pea gravel for an exact match on this circa 1917 house in Washington, DC. We used this same formula a few years ago in the Petworth area.

Here, rocks were screened and sand added to mix to duplicate wall stuccoed by Garland Mitchell's crew, years ago. Garland passed away about 10 years ago. He lived nearby and did most of the stucco work in this neighborhood.	This fine rock size was used frequently in Arlington years ago when pebble dash was popular

Old stucco torn off and replaced on this bay window.	A close up shows our standard pebble dash finish, that matches most of the pebble dash houses in the Washington area.


Here is a method we use for recoating old stucco after it has been painted. (see Jaime's building above) More info here...	Wall resurfaced like new. Finish coat is white portland and white sandblasting sand, waiting to be painted. More...

BEFORE: Sloppy stucco work was done by a company near Frederick, Maryland that advertises in the yellow pages as a stucco contractor. Stucco had failed due the deteriorated cap (mortar on top of chimney). More info here...	AFTER: Offensive work torn off and re-done. I put on a band to hide the join, or the area between the old and new. The cap is recoated with better than original mortar, so I hope this chimney lasts forever. More info here...


New lath and stucco adorn this tudor style house in North Arlington. Old siding and stucco were removed and new lath and stucco applied. Finish is REAL portland cement and REAL sand (of course). Color is a custom color made by using leftover color from another job. A small amount of color adds a rich contrast with the dark brown tudor boards.	A dollar coin of Sacajawea is embedded on one side of dormer, and Thomas Jefferson on the other as part of my ongoing monuments to historical figures embedded in the stucco. All our chimneys have coins embedded on the top.

Hand done permastone is patched. Some permastone, like this, was tooled by hand and some was cast and stuck on.
Permastone was popular in the 1950's.

I even got the color pretty close. You can see the finished color where the edges of my "stones" are drying.

More about the history of Permastone on a future update.