Stucco repair and replastering

What the crack is telling you

Fine map cracking across a field is usually the plaster itself and often cosmetic. A diagonal running off a window or door corner is stress concentrating where the opening interrupts the wall. A stepped crack that follows the block or the framing line suggests movement in what is behind it.

Moisture staining, efflorescence or a hollow sound under a tap are different signals again, and they point at water getting behind rather than at the surface failing.

Patching, or replastering

A localized repair is right when the wall is sound and the damage is contained. Once a wall has enough repairs on it, or the substrate is the problem, patching becomes a way of spending money slowly.

A full replaster resets the surface, buries the history, and is the point at which control joints and details that should have been there originally can be put right.

Texture is the part everybody notices

Matching an existing texture is a craft and a mixing question rather than a product choice. A patch that is flat where the wall has movement, or coarse where the wall is fine, is visible from the pavement for as long as the house stands.

NeXGen holds the C-17 license, so this work stays with us rather than being handed to whoever is available. Matching is done with samples on the wall before the repair is committed.