Thursday, February 25, 2016

Should I tint or paint my stucco finish?

by: Laurel Rae Harmon2/24/2016
To Paint or no to paint?  That is the Question.
TIQUE Primer PaintWhether or not to paint or tint the finish coat of EIFS is a question asked fairly frequently. There are some simple guidelines to follow if you are debating whether to tint or paint stucco finish. The factors involved include the desired color and the texture.
Reasons to Paint
If the desired color is very dark or in a shade of green or red, it is often difficult to make tint that will be a correct match. Dark colors are also prone to fading. Tinted stucco that is dark color may require a lot of pigment which alters the finish to the point that the aggregates in the finish do not properly absorb the color. Also, colors that are in the green or red family often require a lot of yellow pigment which makes tinting stucco finish red or green difficult. Sometime a clear base stucco finish can be used in lieu of tint base stucco but that is not always a solution. When tinting finish is not advisable it is often recommended that the finish be painted instead. Painting stucco finish with and exterior acrylic paint is fairly easy and can be sprayed on with a paint sprayer. However, if you have a fine or smooth sand finish it may reduce the visibility of the texture when painted.
Reasons to Tint
Stucco finish is beautiful and lasts for many years. But over time due to weathering and impact, your finish my get small cracks, flake, or slightly erode. If you have painted your finish coat and your finish has flaked a little bit, the white of the finish underneath the paint will show making your stucco look old and worn. If your stucco is tinted and has worn a little, it will still look fantastic.
Color Matching
At Cross Country Supply, we are able to make most Sherwin-Williams, Benjamin Moore, TIQUE, or other stucco manufacturers colors. The color matching lab can match samples if a clean sample that is approximately 3”x3” (about the size of a tennis ball) is provided. We cannot match colors from a picture. Due to lighting conditions and the photo print paper, cell phone or computer screen, determining colors from a picture is not accurate and cannot be done with desired results.
Mixing your Stucco Tint
Your tint will come in a separate tint cup that you will add to your 5-gallon bucket of finish. Add one tint cup per 5 gallon container, making sure all the tint is out of the cup. Mix with a drill mixer until thoroughly mixed. If you have extra buckets of finish at the end of the job that you haven’t added tint to, you can use the finish for the next job, just order different tints!
A suggestion!
If you either tint or paint, it is best to keep the information of the make, name, and color code for the color you have chosen. This way, if you need to add an addition to your structure, touch up a spot that is a bit worn from years of exposure to the elements, or need to repair a spot from accidental damage such as tornado, tree, or high impact, it will be easy to order the product that you need without having to send out samples for color matching.

The Effects of Woodpeckers on Building Exteriors

By: Laurel Rae Harmon
November 6th 2015
Woodpeckers can damage the exterior of residential and commercial buildings due to their pecking behaviorwoodpeckers on stuccos. There are several species of woodpecker native to North America that have been noted for causing damage to buildings. Woodpeckers use two types of pecking: drumming and drilling. When woodpeckers use repetitive short pecks, this is called drumming. Woodpeckers drum to attract mates and to mark their territories. The sound of the drumming lets other birds know that a woodpecker has claimed an area. Woodpeckers also use another kind of peck called drilling. Drilling is done in order to carve out homes or to find food. One type of woodpecker, the acorn woodpecker, will make a series of small holes just big enough to store one acorn each.
Woodpeckers prefer dead trees to nest and find food. The woodpecker likes to eat beetles, larvae, and other bugs that live in dead and dying trees. When people build a new house on a property and have trees removed for development or when people have dead trees removed, woodpeckers then search for another place to live, mate, and eat. Unfortunately, this usually means someone’s house. When a woodpecker is using dead trees to make a nest or find bugs people generally do not have a problem with this behavior. When a woodpecker starts using a person’s home, then it becomes a problem.
The most common reason a woodpecker will peck at your house is that it likes the noise it makes. Woodpeckers do not limit themselves to the pecking sound on wood and will also peck metal or plastic. Woodpeckers can be found drumming on street lights, utility poles, gutters, chimneys, roof eaves, satellite dishes, stucco, and anything else they like. Luckily, when a woodpecker is drumming, there is usually minimal damage.
However, the other reason woodpeckers like buildings is for nesting, roosting, and brooding. When a woodpecker has decided to take residence in your house it will drill large, deep holes into the exterior and nest in your substrate or insulation. Woodpeckers usually build their nests and mate from January to June and will have 2-3 broods per season laying 3-6 eggs each time. The eggs take less than two weeks to hatch and the chicks are cared for by both the mother and father woodpecker.
It is important to repair woodpecker damage as soon as it is noticed. Leaving holes in exterior cladding for any amount of time allows water, air, and moisture behind your exterior cladding and can lead to mold, mildew, or decay, especially when the substrate is untreated wood such as OSB or plywood.
There are a few things one can do to discourage woodpeckers from drumming or drilling. One of the most effective way to keep a woodpecker from returning is to scare it. It is generally noted that decoys such as owls are not effective because they do no move. Once the woodpeckers realize the decoy is inanimate, they will go back to pecking. Shiny things that move in the breeze, such as pinwheels, strips of brightly colored plastic, Mylar, or aluminum foil will often deter a woodpecker.
It is important that you do not harm or kill the woodpecker as it is an endangered species and harming them in a federal offense. Many species of woodpecker are threatened, critically endangered, or possibly extinct. Other activities like transporting or trapping a woodpecker may be also be illegal and could carry a fine.
One other solution to deterring woodpeckers from nesting in a building is to give it an alternate home. A nesting box, which is a kind of bird house on a post that is enclosed. Some people have found that providing one of these nesting boxes filled with sawdust encourages woodpeckers to nest there rather that drill and nest in building exteriors.
In conclusion, the woodpecker pecks for various reasons. The woodpecker is a beautiful bird that is vital to the environment. When woodpeckers are causing damage to a home or business there are ways to deter them from inflicting major damage on a building’s exterior. It is important to never transport, injure, or kill a woodpecker as they are a protected species
For information on repairing stucco that has been damaged by woodpeckers visit www.eifsdepot.com/eifs-repair-kit/