§ 03.12Stucco repair — TX + OH
A moisture meter, a probe, and a read of the crack pattern before we write a number. Patch, partial replacement, or full repair — only when the wall is genuinely failing. We will not sell a tear-off when the meter says the wall is sound.
We look at the lines before we touch the meter. Three signatures cover roughly 90% of the calls we get on stucco — and only one of them means the wall is genuinely failing.
Hairline diagonals, 45° from corners
Thermal — wall expanding and contracting
The wall heats every south-elevation afternoon and cools at night. Cement does not stretch; it splits along the line of least resistance. The crack itself is rarely the problem.
Sealant + texture-patch only.
Stays cosmetic for years. Water entry only if it widens past 1/16".
Stair-step zig-zag along a course line
Substrate movement — framing settled
The crack tracks the lath fasteners. House moved (foundation settle, joist deflection, an earthquake-tier rumble). The stucco is doing its job — the framing is the work.
Open the field, re-lath, three-coat back. Sometimes a structural fix below.
Crack widens ~1mm per year. Lath corrodes. Substrate rot follows.
Map cracking at the base of the wall
Moisture intrusion — water is already inside
The branching pattern shows where wet substrate has expanded and split the finish coat from beneath. The water source is uphill — flashing, parapet, kickout. The stucco is the symptom.
Trace the source first, repair the source, then open the wall.
Substrate rot accelerates. Repair cost roughly 4× per year of delay.
From the curb, every stucco wall looks the same. The layer stack underneath does not. Knock-test, edge-cut, and substrate read tell us which one is on your wall before we write a scope. We handle both — and we handle them separately.
Most common in DFW. Cement and sand over a metal mesh. Rigid. Heavy. Hollow knock.
Pull the failed field back to sound substrate, re-lath if needed, three-coat back, texture match in two passes.
Sharp, hollow ring. Heavy hand-feel.
Common on 1990s+ homes. Foam plus a polymer skin. Light. Soft hollow knock.
Moisture-meter driven. Open the wall to dry substrate, replace foam and drainage, re-coat to match. Mistaking this for traditional is how walls get torn off unnecessarily.
Soft, dull thunk. Light hand-feel.
Knuckle-tap a foot below a window. Sharp ring = traditional. Soft thunk = synthetic. Either way, we confirm with an edge cut at a soffit return before any scope is written.
We carry a Tramex non-destructive moisture meter and a probe. Every elevation gets walked. Every reading goes on the page below. The scope is built from the readings, not the driveway-glance estimate.
Water enters a hairline crack. Overnight freeze expands it. Daytime thaw releases it wider. Forty cycles a winter widens the crack by roughly 1mm a year — and once it passes 1/16", the substrate gets wet.
We bridge the crack with a UV-stable elastomeric sealant — flexible enough to ride the cycle.
Patch + texture-match goes over the sealant — never paint over the open crack.
Re-walk in the spring after the cycles run their course; the work either holds or the substrate is talking.
If it sits: the failure cascades. By year three, the patch becomes a partial replacement.
§ 12Continue the manual — related to this page
§ 03.10Remodeling
Same paint, four walls, four different jobs.
Two-coat exterior paint scoped per elevation — Sherwin-Williams Duration on the south and west, Resilience on the north, Aura on premium east walls, limewash on stone and brick. Real prep, UV-stable caulks, climate window honored.
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§ 03.08Remodeling
The board you see is one of seven layers.
Vinyl, LP SmartSide, and James Hardie — scored against your wall, your climate, and how long you plan to own. Sheathing first, wrap and tape next, rainscreen behind LP, then board, trim, and finish.
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§ 03.11Remodeling
Source first. Trim second.
Rot is a water problem, not a wood problem. We meter the wood, fix the upstream detail (kickout, drip edge, sealant pan), then rebuild the trim in PVC, Hardie, or primed wood per the run.
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§ 01.05Roofing
The leak shows where water exits, not where it enters.
Trace from the ceiling stain back to the entry — pipe boot, kickout, dead valley, or not the roof at all. The fee credits back to a repair when the repair follows.
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§ 04.01Programs
Your storm. Your scope. Your carrier's check.
Fifteen years on the carrier side. Documented loss, written scope, adjuster meeting on-site. Out-of-pocket: deductible only.
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§ 06Reach the dispatch desk
We walk every wall, map the moisture, photograph every crack signature, and email the file with the scope before we leave the driveway. Whether the answer is patch, partial, or full repair, the file is yours to keep.
(214) 578-9961