Taking Care of Your Stucco Home
For centuries, stucco has been a popular building choice because of its stunningly simple good looks, durability, and easy maintenance. All it needs is regular cleaning and an occasional patch job to keep it looking great.
Top 4 Causes of Stucco Damage
For such a durable building material, stucco can be easily damaged in surprising ways. Below are the four major causes of stucco damage.
- Stucco is easily damaged by heavy impacts, whether it's making too wide a turn with your lawnmower, an errant blow from a hammer, or even a soccer ball hitting a corner.
- Because of its rigidity, stucco naturally develops chips, cracks, dents, and gouges over time. Bob Vila suggests inspecting the entire exterior of your stucco home at least once a year and making any necessary repairs immediately to prevent further damage.
- Harsh chemicals can penetrate to the interior of porous stucco and eat away at it from the inside.
- Power washing uses a blast of water to remove dirt, grime, mold, moss, and other contaminants from a building's exterior. Unfortunately, that very effective stream of water is often too much for stucco to withstand. Stucco exteriors should generally be soft washed rather than power washed.
3 Ways to Care for Your Stucco Home
Angi suggests taking the following essential steps to protect your stucco exterior.
- Take care of cracks or other damage right away.
- Seal it regularly with a clear masonry sealer to fill pores in the stucco so water stays out.
- Keep it clean with professional soft washing.
You'll want to have your stucco home's exterior soft washed whenever it needs a good cleaning. The gentle cleaners and low pressure water used in soft washing will safely remove dirt and grime, leaving your stucco home looking beautifully fresh and clean.
Soft washing not only removes natural growths like algae, mildew, mold, and moss, but the lingering effects of the fungicides used in the soft wash mixture will help keep them from growing back.
Schedule a Professional Cleaning for Your Stucco Home
At Maintain It All, we have been helping customers keep their homes and businesses clean since 2009. Our service-oriented business offers free estimates and simple, up-front pricing. To request your free estimate, contact us today!
