438 
AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 
November, 1909 
The Beauty and Economy of Stucco 
By John A. Gade 
HAT to do with an old country-place—a 
@) 2 ; 
tumbled-down brick farmhouse, a_time- 
worn, weather-beaten barn, an old shingled 
or clapboarded frame structure? It is a 
question that faces us frequently, as we 
turn over in our mind whether we can save 
it at all, or how best to protect or rejuve- 
nate the hopeless looking exterior walls of the cottage we 
would fain picture as a future modest home. Stucco the 
walls. It is the answer to the question. You obtain the 
best results, and, in the long run, also the 
cheapest and most durable ones. What- 
ever the outside finish of your old 
building may be, whether 
stone, brick, clapboards, 
shingles, or novelty siding, 
the stucco may be sur- 
faced, and, if properly 
put on, with almost 
equal success. And 
putting it on does 
not necessitate large 
quantities of expen- 
Siivie mina ter! a lus, 
trained and _ skilled 
labor—simply the 
care and knowledge 
of how to place it 
properly. With the 
assistance of a will- 
ing farmhand, you 
might yourself 
stucco your building, 
especially if you 
practised upon small 
surfaces and sam- 
ples on the walls of 
some doomed shed. 
Your “first. im- 
pulse, upon looking 
over your structure, is 
to calculate the cost of 
making the walls tight to 
wind and weather and of a 
more seemly appearance. 
The mortar has loosened and 
fallen out from the joints of the 
old bricks, or the shingles have rotted, 
or the clapboards look as devoid of paint 
as an old stump in a bog. It will cost 
you quite a little in mason labor and painting to renovate; 
and carpenter labor and material, too, if the structure, as 
probably is the case, is of wood, and in the end you have a 
patched appearance. You had far better take the bull by 
the horns and stucco it once for all. To paint the house 
properly takes three coats of paint, which really will count 
only as two, as the old neglected and dried surfaces will 
practically suck up the first coat, it thus merely acting as 
priming. Painting will cost you about a cent per square 
foot for each coat of paint every five or six years, the 
intervening time depending upon the exposure of your house 
and the quality and expense of paint you employ, and you 
The old porch is retained with Colonial dignity 
will have to repaint and restain, as well as reshingle, some- 
what less frequently. 
If your problem is somewhat different, if you have, for 
instance, an old wooden house you are thinking of shing- 
ling, you will find that shingling it costs about ten cents a 
square foot, staining the shingles three, or your total thir- 
teen. ‘The stucco, put on in the very best manner, will cost 
about seventeen cents a square foot, or about one and a half 
times as much. If you are thinking of building a new 
country house and are in doubt as to the relative expense 
of finishing the outside with stucco or shingles, 
you will find the same proportion holds 
true. Say you propose building a 
cottage to cost you not more 
than six thousand dollars. 
Its exterior side surfacing 
may, if shingled, cost 
four hundred; if stuc- 
coed, six hundred. In 
ten-years’ time you 
have more than 
saved the additional 
two hundred in 
paint, in carpentry, 
and in general tight- 
ness and appearance. 
At the very outset 
it looks better, es- 
pecially where econ- 
omy was the main 
consideration, and 
your exterior wood- 
work could not be 
of the best. 
On the other 
hand, what is the 
life of stucco and 
what are its defects? 
We do not definitely 
know its life or last- 
ing qualities. We do 
know that where it was 
properly and _ carefully 
veneered on _ buildings, 
some twelve or fifteen years 
ago, it is stronger and finer- 
looking to-day than the day it was 
put on. And this is reasonable, for the 
older cement or concrete grows, the 
harder, the more impervious to weather, 
and the more Jike a natural rather than an artificial stone 
surfacing it should become. Where it cracks and crumbles 
and one which builders will make much of, but which is very 
obvious reason—the principal one being the use of improper 
wire or metal lath, lath either of incorrect material or not 
well bedded in the cement, so that it has rusted, and the 
stucco naturally fallen away from it. To all intents and pur- 
poses, stucco will stand forever if the lath does not rust out. 
“Tow to mix it and how to apply it”—there is the secret, 
and one which builders will make much of but which is very 
simple. Stucco is nothing more nor less than cement plas- 
tering and a method of preservation which has been in use 
SRA scse 
