Some exterior coverings for homes and commercial businesses that offer easier maintenance are vinyl or aluminum siding and stucco as well as brick, stone and simulated stone or brick. Painted wooden siding has become undesirable because of the constant need to repaint and refinish it. Sometimes older homes might be made of outmoded construction materials like adobe, wooden logs, older crumbling bricks, and concrete blocks. These construction methods are rarely employed because of issues with shrinkage, heating and cooling, ease of modern systems installations like electrical and plumbing, as well as the cost of materials. Some other reasons these building styles are not popular have to do with the safety of the building in case of fire, earthquake, flooding or high winds like hurricanes and tornadoes.
Stucco is not a completely maintenance free exterior, it might need some help to correct any cracks or deterioration that might occur over the course of the home settling, leaking gutters, moisture migration, vapor problems or vegetation that attacks the integrity of the stucco. A protective water repellant coating made from some liquid plastics will help prolong the life and also provide protection from additional damage that might start to occur from micro cracks. If the stucco has cracked enough that pieces of it are falling off of the building exterior, a patch might be the best option for repair, followed by the application of a water repellant coating to further bind the patch to the original installation.
The base of an application of a simulated stone, brick or stucco exterior is normally the same type of metal grid cloth that is stapled or nailed to the building exterior, hopefully over a moisture proof backing like plastic. This wire lath then has a base coat, called the scratch coat, over it. The second layer of cement goes on top of the scratch coat, called the color coat, that has been specially colored to match the homeowners desired exterior color. Over the top of these two coats is applied the finish or textured coat. Sometimes the surface coat is allowed to set slightly and then be finished in a specified texture or finish. Historically, the colors used were from earth tints, incorporating different minerals into the color coating and then using a basic wash of lime to fill in cracks and keep the color as the structure aged. Modernly, the use of different colored pigments has allowed a wide range of colors, from earth tones like browns, whites and tans to hot pink and green.
Author Resource:-
Garden State Brick (http://www.brickface.com/) is an award-winning company specializes in the installation of high quality Brickface,Stoneface, Stucco NJ
, Hardcoat, and Vinyl exterior surfaces.
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