Posts Tagged ‘scratching’

Test Stucco

Part 2 of the saga that is our last three weeks:  Putting the first stucco onto the exterior walls of our straw bale ag building.

How exciting!

Actually, it was very exciting, but it wasn’t planned, it was inexpertly done, and it had some bad repercussions.  When you are building an ag structure, and suddenly decide you should test out the next step, but haven’t done much research on technique, my advice is to stop and think again.

But we couldn’t wait to see the stucco on our building, so we forged on.  Drew actually did all the work, because I had actually done some  research on stuccoing and had learned that you NEVER, NEVER, EVER work with stucco with your bare hands.  I mentioned this to Drew, but I don’t think either of us would have believed how true this maxim it is.  It definitely is best categorized as a maxim.  Follow it.

I’m a sissy self-preservationist, so as I said, I abstained from the fun, and Drew mixed an 80-pound load of stucco with his bare hands, applied it with his bare hands, and spent the next week applying creams and ointments to his badly cut up hands and fingers.

However, the test patch worked great!  We learned that hands actually are a good way to put on stucco, better than the little pieces of board that I tried to use as trowels, but that heavy rubber gloves would be a great addition to the process.  Also, we learned how challenging it is to get the stucco to go through the lathe, into the bale, and actually engage with the threads of straw, which is what’s required in order for the stucco to really lock into the structure.

Finally, we did remember to scratch the surface—we didn’t have a scratching trowel, but I used a few nails to get the job done.

One 80-pound bag of stucco can be mixed in one wheelbarrow and covers about 4 square feet.

Dan