# Redoing exterior



## mluciano (Feb 21, 2011)

I am planning on redoing the exterior of a house I just bought. 

It seems like the exterior is made of some sort of stamped stucco to make it look like bricks (I am going to attach pictures). Some of this "brick" is falling apart and just looks terrible. Does anyone have any experience with this? Do I need to remove them and then apply stucco or canI just lay stucco on top of the current material. 

The problem is I am not sure what type of material this is. The chunks that are coming off are about 3/4 inch thick. Underneath the material is concrete. 

On the picture of a door you can see that an extension was made to the house and has a straight stucco look, which is what I am hoping to have all over. 

How do I go about replacing the exterior? Any advice is appreciated.


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## nealtw (Feb 21, 2011)

New siding will only be as good as what it is stuck to, I think I would remove and replace, but I'm no expert.


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## mluciano (Feb 21, 2011)

That is kind of what I was thinking, but I wanted a confirmation. Somebody told me some bonding agent and a skim coat of stucco would suffice but I don't know if I should chance it.


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## nealtw (Feb 23, 2011)

Buy removing you have a chance to inspect the house for other damage like rot or insects. So when your done you will have job right and no surprises latter.


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## mluciano (Feb 23, 2011)

Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. My only worry is that I am going to start removing the material and some spots are going to be to difficult to remove. What would you use, hammer and chisel?


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## nealtw (Feb 23, 2011)

wire mesh is held on with nails and stucco is applied to that. There is no easy way. I have started with a big hammer create a starting point and get a bar behind it,cut wire as you go.  It's ugly!!


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## joecaption (Feb 24, 2011)

Just my opion, but I just hate stucco on a house from a maintaince stand point.
So many times I've seen where it's cracked and allowed moisture in behind the walls, termites get in behind it unseen until it's to late, cracks forming as the house shifts.


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