Stucco crack and spalling repair.
Cut back to sound material, rebuilt in coats, textured to match the wall around it, and only after we know what put the water there in the first place.
Reading the damage
Before we quote we walk the elevation and tap it. Sound stucco rings solid. Areas that have lost their bond sound hollow, and that hollow zone almost always extends further than the visible damage, which is why repairs quoted from a photo tend to come up short.
Then we look at the pattern. Cracks radiating from the corners of windows and doors point at movement or a lintel issue. Horizontal cracking at a floor line is different again. Even fine crazing across a whole wall is generally just the material aging in the sun and is the easiest case.
You get told which of those you have, in plain language, with the reasoning. If part of the wall is fine, we do not include it in the price.
- Hollow areas mapped by sounding, not guessed
- Crack pattern assessed for movement versus surface aging
- Cause identified before any material is mixed
- Sound sections left alone and left out of the quote
How the repair is actually done
Damaged material gets cut out back to a solid edge, past the hollow zone rather than to the edge of the visible crack. Cutting a clean square edge matters, because a feathered scrape leaves a thin lip of stucco that fails again almost immediately.
Where lath or fasteners behind the wall have corroded, they get replaced. There is no point rebuilding a face onto a rusted substrate, and this is the step that separates a repair that lasts from one that looks good for a season.
Then the patch is built back up in coats rather than filled in one pass, with each coat given time. Rushing that is how you get shrinkage cracking straight through a brand-new repair. The final coat is textured to match the wall.
- Cut back past the hollow zone to a clean edge
- Corroded lath and fasteners replaced
- Built up in coats, not filled in one pass
- Finish textured to the surrounding wall
Cracks that are really drainage
A recurring theme on the walls we repair: the damage sits directly under a gutter that overflows, beside a downspout that discharges at the base, or on the one elevation with no gutter at all. Once you have seen the pattern a few hundred times it is hard to unsee.
That is the difference between a stucco patch and a fix. If roof water is still sheeting down that wall next August, the repair is on a clock. We can correct the drainage in the same visit, because gutters are our main trade and the crew is already there.
Sometimes the answer is a downspout extension that costs very little. Sometimes it is a section of gutter that was never installed. Either way you will hear what we think is going on and what it would cost to stop.
Being realistic about the finish
We work hard on texture matching and we get close. What we cannot do is make new material match paint that has been fading in Florida sun for a decade. A well-executed patch under old paint still reads as a slightly different shade in raking afternoon light.
So the honest advice is to plan on repainting at least the affected elevation once the repair has cured. That is not us adding scope, it is the difference between a repair you notice and one you do not, and you are free to leave it.
Where an elevation has accumulated several rounds of past patching, resurfacing the whole face is often better value than adding one more mismatched square to the collection.
No deposit, nothing due until you are satisfied, and our workmanship carries a lifetime guarantee.
Simple from estimate to guarantee.
Free Estimate
We inspect your roofline, recommend the right fix, and hand you a clear written price — no obligation.
Scheduled Service
Our local crew completes the work cleanly and on time, and hauls away anything we remove.
Lifetime Guarantee
Backed by our workmanship guarantee, and you pay nothing until the job is done right.
Stucco Repair questions.
Tap the wall around it. If it sounds hollow, the stucco has lost its bond and filling the crack will not hold. Cracks that reopen in the same line after being patched, and cracks running diagonally from window corners, also point to something behind the surface.
It is stucco breaking away from the wall, usually because water got behind it and corroded the lath or fasteners. The corrosion expands and pushes the face off. Repairing it means cutting back to sound material and replacing what has corroded, not skimming over the top.
Past the hollow zone to solid material, with a clean square edge. That is nearly always wider than the visible crack. A feathered edge leaves a thin lip of old stucco that breaks away again quickly.
The texture match can be very close. Colour is the limit, because the paint around it has been weathering for years. Planning to repaint the elevation after the repair cures is what makes it genuinely disappear.
The cutting and rebuilding is often quick, but coats need time between them and the finish needs to cure before painting. We will give you a realistic schedule rather than promising a same-day result that would crack.
Usually, because usually it is water. Correcting an overflowing gutter, adding a missing run, or extending a downspout away from the wall removes the cause. That is our main trade, so we can do both parts as one job.
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