I am renovating an old cabin and adding two additions. The original cabin had stucco applied right over the clapboard siding. They nailed the expanded metal lathe on the wood siding and applied the mortar. All of the old siding is coming off so I will have 1/2″ plywood sheathing on the old and new framing. What next? I know I need a moisture barrier first and I plan to wrap all door and window openings with Grace’s Ice and Water Shield. Thought I would wrap the house in 15# tar paper first but there is probably a better product to use in this day and age. Next, I plan to nail the expanded metal lathe on at the studs and then apply type S brick lock (grey mortar) over the lathe. Will sponge it to get a smooth surface. Any thoughts on the process? I am in Northern Virginia. Many thanks for your input.
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Bump.
apply over top?
Under the right circumstances, it's OK to apply new stucco over existing. I did it to my own home 5 years ago and have yet to have any cracking. It had 20 year old conventional stucco; prep consisted of grinding off the most prominent lumps and bumps and a good wash and scrub to remove dust. We applied a thin scratch coat roughly 1/4" thick and floated it flat, then acrylic stucco was applied over that (after curing time). The only places that were stripped back to framing were a post-and-beam assembly under a deck, where three-ply columns and beams had had stucco applied directly to them. Movement between the different plies of 2x10 had caused the original stucco to crack, so those were stripped off, then plywood strips fastened on over the edge grain of the framing plies to provide a stable surface for the new paper, wire and stucco.
If you haven't pulled off the old stucco yet, have a good look at it before ripping and tearing. If there is significan cracking, then things are moving and that has to be dealt with before spending money on new stucco which will have little choice but to crack too. Your place is probably sealed up fairly well now - it could make a lot of sense to keep it that way and apply over top. Of course, if you've replaced a lot of windows in your reno, you may have a lot of window patching to do, in which case tear off and start again - on those walls at least - makes sense.
I'd recommend better paper than 15 minute, 60 isn't 4 times the cost and it is a lot tougher to survive the sunlight, water, and scrapes before stucco is applied. Be sure to apply metal flashing over all openings in the walls, unless they fit the 3:1 rule - if the roof overhang is 3 times wider than the opening's height below the top of the wall.
First thing on the wall is plate poly (16" wide) to protect finished surfaces below - it gets knifed off at the end of the job. Then stucco stop flashing over that, then paper lapped up the wall, and another stop at the top of the wall. Take time to get those stops level, they will define everything in the finished work.