The bulge...[stucco repair]

[tinlizzy]

50% of my stucco house needed repair, mostly because previous owners grew ivy on the house or maybe they grew ivy because the stucco was bad?

Anyway, it took me 15 years to find someone who did stucco (the guy had retired to Arizona and then moved back). He was 70 and he got his 80 year old friend to help! He said he hated matching old stucco and promised if I let him do it his way it would be beautiful. They pressure washed it, ripped off the old stucco that was loose and cracked, repaired it, then sprayed a skim coat over the whole house. It does look beautiful. It's an ivory color and I love it. $10k.

 

[rayinpenn]

Same here. My house is 62 years old and no problems with the brick exterior.

No problems with the brick exterior of F's 61 year old house next door, either.

No problems with the brick exterior on my 45 year old former house.

Haven't ever heard of a brick exterior that needed anything other than an occasional pressure washing. Not to say that such problems never happen! But they must be extremely rare.

Hmmm not sure of your point but brick houses often need repointing just look in your yellow pages or google it. You'll see lots of people offering that service... I wonder if it has anything to do with climate, the materials used, the mason, the ratio of the ingredients?

http://armacoconstruction.com/brick-pointing-and-repair

We keep all vines off the house - they can be bug highways and the tendrils can destroy the stucco as pointed out by a previous poster.

Question: How often should the mortar of a brick house be repointed?
Answer: The typical life span of mortar these days is 20 to 30 years, a pretty broad range. If you’re concerned, check your mortar by trying to scrape out some pieces with a sharp knife. If you can do it easily, it may be time to repoint, which can mean either refreshing or replacing the bad sections.

Above from the farmers almanac.

 

[nativenewenglander]

Same here. My house is 62 years old and no problems with the brick exterior.

No problems with the brick exterior of F's 61 year old house next door, either.

No problems with the brick exterior on my 45 year old former house.

Haven't ever heard of a brick exterior that needed anything other than an occasional pressure washing. Not to say that such problems never happen! But they must be extremely rare.

I was a volunteer at a tavern museum house made of brick here in NH. We had a restoration mason spend the better part of a year re-pointing the exterior and rebuilding the four chimneys, plus fireplaces. He had to use a lime based mortar, since the 200+ year old brick are soft. Using new cement mortar would ruin the bricks over time. However, when he was done he said it wouldn't need much work for a hundred years. That's good since it cost us just shy of $100,000 to get it repaired.

 

[Texas Proud]

Hmmm not sure of your point but brick houses often need repointing just look in your yellow pages or google it. You'll see lots of people offering that service... I wonder if it has anything to do with climate, the materials used, the mason, the ratio of the ingredients?

Brick and Stone Pointing Services in the Philadelphia Area

We keep all vines off the house - they can be bug highways and the tendrils can destroy the stucco as pointed out by a previous poster.

Question: How often should the mortar of a brick house be repointed?
Answer: The typical life span of mortar these days is 20 to 30 years, a pretty broad range. If you’re concerned, check your mortar by trying to scrape out some pieces with a sharp knife. If you can do it easily, it may be time to repoint, which can mean either refreshing or replacing the bad sections.

Above from the farmers almanac.

Well, that is interesting.... something I never knew.... I will have to go outside an look at my bricks... nothing has hit me with me going around the house every once in awhile, but never did concentrate on this...

 

[W2R]

The stucco has done it job well for 29 years. No painting no nothing. What kind of siding last 29 years without nothing done to it?

Same here. My house is 62 years old and no problems with the brick exterior.

No problems with the brick exterior of F's 61 year old house next door, either.

No problems with the brick exterior on my 45 year old former house.

Haven't ever heard of a brick exterior that needed anything other than an occasional pressure washing. Not to say that such problems never happen! But they must be extremely rare.

Hmmm not sure of your point but brick houses often need repointing just look in your yellow pages or google it. You'll see lots of people offering that service... I wonder if it has anything to do with climate, the materials used, the mason, the ratio of the ingredients

I didn't look, but just because a service is offered doesn't mean that it is often needed. I haven't ever heard of anybody having that done, before now. But you have a point; maybe it's because we don't have to deal with a lot of ice and snow. On the other hand,

when he was done he said it wouldn't need much work for a hundred years. That's good since it cost us just shy of $100,000 to get it repaired.

A hundred years seems like a very long time to us non-newenglanders, and I'm sure they get a lot of snow up there.

 

[rayinpenn]

I didn't look, but just because a service is offered doesn't mean that it is often needed. I haven't ever heard of anybody having that done, before now. But you have a point; maybe it's because we don't have to deal with a lot of ice and snow. On the other hand,

A hundred years seems like a very long time to us non-newenglanders, and I'm sure they get a lot of snow up there.

1. If you offer a service that no one needs you go out of business
2. The type of mortar used back then is different then today.. it breathes, remains soft for a long time. Todays rock hard stuff simply hasn't lasted as long.

 

[W2R]

1. If you offer a service that no one needs you go out of business

Hey, but I thought "a sucker is born every minute"?

2. The type of mortar used back then is different then today.. it breathes, remains soft for a long time. Todays rock hard stuff simply hasn't lasted as long.

Or maybe that's why it needed work at all? Too soft.

Here's an interesting quote on the first link Google provided to me, from This Old House:

Like all mortars, however, it slowly eroded and after 60 or 70 years the weathered portion was chiseled out, a process called repointing

https://www.thisoldhouse.com/ideas/repointing-brick

60 or 70 years (or longer in milder climates) sounds more realistic than 29 years.

Basically what I am concluding from your posts, is that "today's rock hard stuff" seems to be breaking down much faster in some regions than in others. It's hard to realize that what other people see and experience as common sense in their region, doesn't always apply in another part of the country. One idea is to move South, and another might be to live in an HOA where the HOA has to take care of exterior matters like that.

 

[Blue Collar Guy]

younger ones bounce better

I've never done stucco, but frankly I'm not seeing any reason that a ladder would be any more dangerous for us "seasoned" folks than for younger ones. My former neighbor added a 2nd floor to his house in his 80's. By himself.

Being retired means having time to prepare for the job, get the materials and tools, wait for good weather, and especially, having time to do the job slowly and carefully. This is probably MUCH safer than what I used to do in my younger days.

Back then I'd have to make do with the materials and tools I could afford, work on house projects only when I had time, not when the weather was cooperating, and finish quickly because I only had weekends and evenings to do anything. Safety was a lower priority then.

if i fell off a ladder in my 20's i would go to emergency room & live probably, now if i fell , next stop funeral parlor

 

[target2019]

What are the chances that pointing done in the last 30-40 years on a new house will fail?

My first guess is "pretty good". Not all of these jobs have been done by the same old-world craftsman. There is a wide variation in quality on many aspects of construction.

 

[Amethyst]

Frankly I am much more afraid of "next step, wheelchair and/or nursing home."

if i fell off a ladder in my 20's i would go to emergency room & live probably, now if i fell , next stop funeral parlor

 

[Texas Proud]

Well, looked at a good % of the mortar on my house... it looks like it is brand new... a few places it has changed color a bit, but I went to it and looked close and zero chipping off or getting soft...

Also checked the build date and it is 33 years old...

 

[rayinpenn]

A good friend and I were out for a evening exercise walk. He had looked the homes in 'The Villages' and commented that the quality of the construction was poor and he just couldn't buy there. Well I reminded him at 62 he didn't need it to last 40 years. He went silent for a few minutes.

So I guess I'd buy another stucco house...

 

[Hermit]

if i fell off a ladder in my 20's i would go to emergency room & live probably, now if i fell , next stop funeral parlor

I am about to start painting the exterior of my house. I have to wait for it to warm up a bit still. (9 degrees yesterday morning with about 8 inches of snow.) If you don't hear from me anymore, you can probably guess what happened.

 

[rayinpenn]

So the second estimate ...cut out the bad section repair it and skim coat the rest... $6,500. Bam. bbb triple a rated.