Preventing Costly Stucco Repairs
A properly laid out sprinkling plan is very important as it will prevent water from shooting on your home and fence walls and causing accelerated damage to your stucco and foundation, all of which can add up to unnecessary (and costly) repairs when it comes time to repaint your house.
This week, our house painters came across an extreme case of stucco deterioration that was caused by a sprinkling system. You can see from the photo that the grass comes right up to the edge of the foundation and the sprinklers were hitting the stucco house wall two times daily…..for 5 straight years. Constant water spray can cause extreme damage to any painted surface: Stucco will break off, wood will rot and metal will rust. A moist foundation is also a feeding ground for those pesky termites that Phoenix see’s on about 1 of every 4 homes. This home in particular had so much damage that you could push on the stucco and it would flex back and forth and simply fall off to the ground. The water got in so far that the chicken wire was completely rusted through in areas.
How We Repaired the Stucco?
When we see issues like this we always start with a thorough pressure wash, this will remove any loose materials and give us a clean slate to start with. We removed all the rusted out chicken wire, installed new wire, and re-stucco’d the entire bottom half of the home. After the stucco cured, we primed the new stucco and applied a coat of DRY-LOCK masonry primer to the lower portion of the wall and the foundation. This primer helps prevent future water penetration from the sprinklers. The cost was approximately $800 to do these repairs, almost 1/3 of what their entire home cost to be repainted. Looking at the finished result, our house painters did an amazing job, you can barely see where the damages were.
How Can You Avoid This?
These costly stucco repairs can be avoided, here are a few tips to make sure you don’t have to deal with these issues when it comes time to paint your house.
- Install a 2-3 foot space of desert rock landscaping between your home and your grass or any high water use areas (Gardens, Plants, etc). There are many quality landscape companies who will do this for you, its going to be cheaper than the stucco repairs and it will also save you money in water usage.
- Adjust your sprinkling system so that is is watering the lawn only!
- When you see peeling paint, fix it quickly. Paint is a barrier that protects, its designed to keep the stucco on your home and the metal from rusting. When that protective layer falls off it is now allowing water to penetrate even further into the surface and cause greater damage. The sooner you can fix any peeling areas the less damage you will see. If the peeling was caused by anything we did wrong then call us and we’ll fix it for free under your 3 year warranty, it does not however cover damage from sprinkler systems.
Arizona Painting Company is always available for a free consultation if you are having similar issues like this. We can help you fix the problem so it doesn’t come back in the future. Call us today at 480-926-7700 or schedule a house painting quote today.