For centuries, builders have been coating their homes and buildings with textured masonry and other stucco finishing materials as an inexpensive shortcut to producing uniform-looking profiles. For example, why do most new homes have blown-out stucco (also known as “popcorn”) ceilings? Producing a visually flat ceiling (or wall) surface requires a lot of time and materials. And it takes master plastering skills to hide uneven drywall flaws and finish each tape joint with the required 3 coats of drywall plaster compound. But with a textured sheathing, the builder can lay down the drywall roughly as it sits, glue it down with a single coat of plaster, and the resulting flaws disappear under the illusion of a “level” textured surface. The results look like new and even the builder saves time and money and hopefully passes those savings on to you. It’s a perfect solution!… Until it breaks.

Smooth surface crack repair

When a crack develops in a flat wall or ceiling, the repair is fairly simple. He covers it with a strip of paper tape (if inside) or mesh tape (inside or outside), covers with a putty knife, and the appropriate inside or outside patching compound in three thin coats (each one wider than the last one that floats). clean it with the surrounding surface as lightly as possible) and sand it enough to remove the edges.

A smooth plaster like this is easy to achieve with a little practice once you’ve got these basics down. And while you’re practicing, there are no mistakes that can’t be easily corrected with a little more plaster or a little more sanding. The most common mistake is applying the compound too thick. This creates excessive sanding and patches that appear bumpy.

But what about the crack in a textured surface? Obviously, you can’t just tape it down, apply a thin coat, and sand it down. The result would be a long, flat patch in the middle of a textured profile (which I’ve seen too many owners get stuck on in my career). It stands out as a serious rash and adds insult to injury. You can’t undo or fix a repair like this. The only way to get rid of a bad stucco repair is to remove all of the textured material from the entire surface and replace it with new. That’s an expensive undertaking and can be avoided if the repair was done right the first time.

Work with textured materials

There is often a misconception that one can simply remove the textured layer of popcorn masonry or stucco (or whatever) from around the damaged area to repair the substrate and then replace the textured material only in this location. Sounds reasonable in theory as long as you’re using the exact same material as a replacement. But in practice, it is almost always impossible.

With great skill and experience, a finisher can chamfer the outside edges of the damaged area so that when the new material is applied over the exposed substrate (drywall, brick, concrete, etc.) it can gradually smooth out. edges without overlapping surrounding material to keep it level with the existing grade. But even this shows a small bulge around the repair and is noticeable to those who know it’s there… ie YOU. And this is the best that can be done without a complete replacement. The most common approach I’ve seen people try is to simply try to cover the crack with more of the same material that is used on the overall surface. The problem with this is that anything you add to the surface of a textured profile just magnifies where the damage is with a hump in a sea of ​​bumps. So what do you do if you’re not a master mason and don’t want to spend the money on complete removal and replacement of your stucco just to fix a few cracks?

Easy crack repair for textured surfaces.

To understand how to repair a crack, you must understand the anatomy of the crack. Sometimes created by a sudden impact, sometimes by the long (or short) natural process of displacement and settling, and often by water leakage, the crack is a break in the solid substrate. And through the laws of weight and gravity, the crack can only move, crush and grow. It never gets smaller and rarely stays the same. No matter how you repair the crack, you will only mask it as it continues to thrive below the surface waiting for its chance to reappear. That is, unless you want to go through the expensive and complicated process of replacing the entire substrate. But who wants to do that if there is an easier way?

Ultimately, you want a repair to be invisible or at least, depending on the severity of the damage, inconspicuous to the eye. To accomplish this in the midst of a textured surface, the repair must fill the crack, preserve the surrounding texture, and not reopen as the surface changes over time. Solid drying fillers, such as gypsum and drywall compound, can easily fill the crack, but do little to preserve the texture and generally result in a poor approximation of the surrounding surface at best. . They also dry out hard and brittle, allowing the underlying crack to easily break through the surface in a short time. So the ideal material has to remain flexible to keep up with the movement of the crack and has to make the crack disappear within its original profile. What can do all this and be easily applied? Latex for caulking.

Simply run a small bead of latex caulking along the surface of the crack, moisten your fingers with a little warm water as a lubricant, and massage the caulking into the crack while “washing” it into the surrounding texture. Make sure the crack is well filled and excess caulking around the edges blends lightly into the texture. Let it dry completely and then paint with latex paint to preserve elasticity. It’s as easy as that! But never use silicone caulking for this type of repair, as you can’t paint over it.

In cases where you cannot paint the surface for one reason or another (e.g., a very large exterior wall on unpainted stained masonry), use a colored caulk that best matches the color of the surface and be sure to wash away most of the material from the outside edges of the crack before it dries.

A flexible repair is a durable repair. As your home changes, expands and contracts, so does your latex caulking crack filler.

Happy painting!