Hello everyone! This is Ted with MortarSprayer.com, here with Maureen of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada to tell us about their DIY cement stucco garage. Maureen and her husband Alex had a detached garage they wanted to coat and protect with a stucco finish. They came to our website and bought one of our stucco sprayers and decided to do the entire project themselves. And you can see from our photos what a fine job they did on their new cement stucco shop.
Did you know?
- Cement Stucco is a proven plastering system that has withstood the test of time. The addition of an acrylic top coat helps protect the cement stucco against harsh winter weather even in the northern climates like Saskatchewan Canada .
- Stucco is a durable choice for a home or garage. A stucco shop can also offer more fire resistance than a wood sided shop.
MortarSprayer.com – Hi, Maureen! Thanks for joining us today.
Maureen – It is my pleasure.
MortarSprayer.com – Maureen, the pictures of your detached garage are beautiful! I understand you and your husband, Alex, have never applied any stucco before. Is that correct?
Maureen – That is correct. Alex has done concrete work in the past, so he had a fairly good idea of what he would be dealing with, but neither of us had ever worked with stucco before.
MortarSprayer.com – I also heard that you enlisted the aid of a special someone (your daughter)?
Maureen – Our youngest daughter, Chloe was home on holiday. She was determined to get her hands on the sprayer.
MortarSprayer.com – Well tell us about the project. What gave you the confidence to purchase one of the stucco sprayers from MortarSprayer.com?
Maureen – Alex researched the sprayer online. Since we were going to do the project ourselves and since he knew that my ability to trowel on stucco would be limited, he was convinced that using a stucco sprayer would speed up the process and enable us to work together more efficiently.
MortarSprayer.com – Now before we get started talking about your beautiful garage, we should probably talk a little about all of the tools and products you selected and why. First off, besides the stucco sprayer, what other tools did you need for this job?
Maureen – We purchased a cement mixer, which we used for the base and second coats.
MortarSprayer.com – Did you have to rent a compressor?
Maureen – We own a compressor and had enough hose to reach the far side and full height of the garage.
MortarSprayer.com – Were there any other tools you needed?
Maureen – We used a hand held mortar mixer to mix the color into the acrylic stucco. We used our own cement trowels. We purchased a brush for scratch coating, which also worked well for brushing away debris later. We used scrap plywood, cardboard and plastic to protect the parging and the concrete driveway. This also helped a lot when it came to the final clean-up.
MortarSprayer.com – Now you guys did a three-coat stucco finish, which is pretty common. What product did you use for the scratch coat? Was it a pre-mixed product? Brand name?
Maureen – We used Quikrete Base Coat Stucco – Pump Grade. Only water was added. This mixed well in the cement mixer. We ended up using the highest recommended amount of water to keep the product from being too dry, which made it easier to use, and to achieve a good looking finish.
MortarSprayer.com – How about the second coat. What kind of product? Name?
Maureen – We used the same product for the second coat.
MortarSprayer.com – And your finish coat?
Maureen – We used Imasco Perfector Acrylic Finish
MortarSprayer.com – What made you decide to go with an acrylic finish coat?
Maureen – We chose acrylic stucco for ease of use and we thought it would be easier to get a consistent color mix.
MortarSprayer.com – Did you guys face any special challenges? Wind? Height? Other weather issues?
Maureen – Wind and heat were a problem. Not surprisingly we found that all stucco coats dried much faster with the wind and higher temperatures. We found that starting early in the morning and working on the shady side worked best. Also, since we had the stucco on the ground and Alex was on the scaffolding much of the time, we developed a method of loading and tossing the sprayer to him. When it was three of us working I would mix, Chloe would spray lower sections of the walls, with Alex always troweling. Or if working up high, she would load and toss the sprayer to Alex on the scaffolding. If just Alex & I, I would mix, load and toss, then he would spray and trowel.
MortarSprayer.com – What about color? Did you guys use a color that had to be mixed in with the stucco? Brand name (and color) of the product used? Or did you paint everything when you were finished? Brand name (and color) of the product used?
Maureen – The acrylic stucco came in large pails. We had determined the color required to match the house. The colorant came in bottles that were added, one to each pail of stucco, with exactly 8 ounces of water. This product required a lot of mixing with a hand mixer. We were told to mix a number of pails at a time so we could take some from each pail to mix together, to ensure we didn’t end up with a patchy look. The coloring agent was an Imasco product.
MortarSprayer.com – Awesome! Ok, Maureen, the question that’s on everyone’s mind is how did the sprayer you purchased from MortarSprayer.com perform?
Maureen – We were very thankful to have the sprayer, it worked great! We worked much faster and we believe we ended up with a better finish. We were able to get the stucco on thinner, using less product.
MortarSprayer.com – Do you think it was easier to use than working with one of those old-fashioned hawk-and-trowels?
Maureen – It was so much easier, we couldn’t believe the difference it made. The sprayer greatly reduced the physical demand on Alex as he was doing all of the troweling.
MortarSprayer.com – How about time savings? Would you say the stucco sprayer from MortarSprayer.com saved time on this application?
Maureen – The sprayer saved us a huge amount of time. We tried troweling one wall and were amazed at how quickly we moved once we started using the sprayer. We estimate that we were able to cover three times the amount of wall space in the same time as troweling.
MortarSprayer.com – You guys did a pretty awesome job for a family who has never done any stucco before. Would you recommend the stucco sprayer from MortarSprayer.com to other folks out there who have limited to no experience with stucco?
Maureen – Absolutely! We have no qualms about recommending the sprayer. It was very easy to use and we know it allowed us to finish faster with a better looking garage. In fact we offered it to friends for their use.
MortarSprayer.com – Is there anything else you would like to add?
Maureen – I have a word of caution to add. For those loading and tossing the sprayer, be careful where you place your hands. I accidentally grabbed the trigger and sprayed Alex down the front. After apologizing we carried on and finished the wall, with him being a little more uncomfortable than us. At the end of the job Alex discovered he could not get his pants undone. I’m afraid that finished Chloe and I. We all had a good laugh at the end of a long day! That aside, we feel we could not have done it without the sprayer. After using the hawk and trowels on one wall we were very disheartened; it took so long and so much effort. The sprayer guaranteed that we were able to complete the project and we know we did a better job with fewer lines, as it allowed us to work much faster.
MortarSprayer.com– Well we are just about out of time. Thanks to you, Maureen, and to your husband, Alex, and your daughter Chloe, for joining our family of satisfied customers. And thanks to you out there! If you have any questions about how to proceed with your own cement stucco garage or home, please let us know; we are here to help.