Stucco to the Mattone Barile

Hello!! Just a couple questions before I start to stucco.

  1. I bought quickCrete stucco- I’m going to apply a base layer THEN the finish layer of stucco after a few days. I can wait for that to dry then apply paint? Or do I add coloring to the wet stucco?
  2. I see that some people say that veneer is preferred to a painted stucco, why is that?
  3. Was planning on applying stucco to the concrete blocks below- I know that I need some sort of structure for the stucco to adhere to…would chicken wire against the concrete work? Then apply the stucco?
  4. Someone said in this blog to apply stucco from top to bottom, instructions say bottom to top…does it matter??

Okay, here we go!

You can do either. If you decide to tint the stucco rather than painting it, you must also waterproof it. Using a good exterior deck paint does that second job for you, so it’s less area to waterproof.

Matter of taste. Personally I have my outer layer in a painted stucco, and I like the look. We may eventually apply a veneer layer over it, but we’re waiting to build a patio around the oven and haven’t decided on the finish materials yet. (The only advantage of veneering is that you avoid an annual paint job, but in my opinion that’s no big deal.)

It would work fine, but you do need to find some way of attaching the chicken wire to the concrete block. Keep all the fasteners within the area where stucco will go, and allow the chicken wire to peek out beyond that. Once the first layer of stucco is applied and dried, you can use wire nippers to trim the excess chicken wire and then bury the ends under your finish layer.

I’ve tried it both ways. Bottom to top is the way to go, because you’re starting out with a vertical surface and the first few swaths of mortar will support the ones further up. When you go up and over, the final swaths will start to “pull up” the layers below. If you go top to bottom, gravity will definitely not be your friend.

Hope this helps!

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