Dan F's One-Room Garage Studio

Dude, was that yer garage door I saw in that last bag??!?

hehe ... wouldn't that make life easy if i could just get rid of the garage door. but i'm keeping it for cosmetic reasons. and yes it will be a pain in the ass ... i will be able i think to completely remove all of hte parts of the door that are not visible from outside, so that should help. hinges and tracks etc. still haven't figured out exactly how to fill what will probably be 2-3 inches of airspace between my outer leaf and the outer skin of the garage door. i was thinking some kind of non-air-permeable but lightweight material. i thought about sand but that weighs way too much. over a ton would be needed. gypsum i think would be ridiculously PITA and also would weigh quite a bit. but, in all honesty i haven't thoroughly searched for threads on this, which i know are around here ... haven't gotten there yet. dan

Dan Fitzpatrick wrote:

i will be able i think to completely remove all of hte parts of the door that are not visible from outside, so that should help. hinges and tracks etc. still haven't figured out exactly how to fill what will probably be 2-3 inches of airspace between my outer leaf and the outer skin of the garage door. i was thinking some kind of non-air-permeable but lightweight material. i thought about sand but that weighs way too much. over a ton would be needed. gypsum i think would be ridiculously PITA and also would weigh quite a bit. dan

Here's an idea that might get the creative juices flowing. If you take the panels down and lay them flat with the cavity side up. You could pour some sort of substance in there to fill the cavity. I'm not quite sure what that substance would be though. Are you planning on reusing this door at some point in the future? If not you could fill it with cement or something dense like plaster of paris or gypcrete.... you get the idea! Marcel

still haven't figured out exactly how to fill what will probably be 2-3 inches of airspace between my outer leaf and the outer skin of the garage door. i was thinking some kind of non-air-permeable but lightweight material.

Hello Dan, I'm no expert but I was under the impression this door is a third leaf, which according to John should be vented. Even if it is, the airgap is still a spring, no? If I understand that correctly, then why couldn't you just fill it with batt insulation. It would help dampen the garage door too. fitZ

Xalky wrote:

Here's an idea that might get the creative juices flowing. If you take the panels down and lay them flat with the cavity side up. You could pour some sort of substance in there to fill the cavity. I'm not quite sure what that substance would be though. Are you planning on reusing this door at some point in the future? If not you could fill it with cement or something dense like plaster of paris or gypcrete.... you get the idea!

Hi Marcel ... yes that's a good idea. I hadn't thought of laying the panels flat (i was hurting my brain trying to pour liquid into vertical panels :oops: ) i'm basically sacrificing this door to the studio gods, so i can destroy it. :twisted: i'm not sure how difficult it would be to reassemble the door panels after they have been filled with something heavy (i'm pretty much a one-man show here). but that would take care of the three leaf issue that fitZ (cadesignr) mentions.

cadesignr wrote:

Hello Dan, I'm no expert but I was under the impression this door is a third leaf, which according to John should be vented. Even if it is, the airgap is still a spring, no? If I understand that correctly, then why couldn't you just fill it with batt insulation. It would help dampen the garage door too.

FitZ you are right of course, this is a three leaf system. However i don't think venting will change that, it will still resonate but there will just be more holes for the resonance sound to escape to the outside. the way i think of it is, what's louder, an acoustic guitar with its normal hole under the strings or a bizarre one that had no hole? i guess there are two approaches. one is to integrate the garage door TOTALLY into the leaf so that there is no airgap and no third leaf. the other is to have a third leaf but work to minimize it's effect. There is an interesting discussion here from Paul Woodlock's project. the strategy discussed in this thread is to try to make the MAM resonace as HIGH as possible (usually we try to get it LOW) so that it will be in a frequency that is VERY well isolated by the first two leaves. ALSO: the cool thing about this is that below the MAM frequency two leaves follow mass law, essentially they become one leaf, so the garage door's extra leaf has no effect. if you follow this strategy then you do not want to add much mass to the garage door since that will lower fMAM and also insulation will lower fMAM. you want to dampen the door of course somehow but try to do it without lowering fMAM too much. the strategy of totally integrating the garage door into the outer leaf with zero airgap is the best one from a theoretical point of view, but from a practical point of view it may prove to be a huge pain. HERE'S A QUESTION: say i lay down my garage door panels and pour in this stuff. it's closed cell, airtight (it can be used to fill boat pontoons and will remain waterproof for months if there is a hole in your pontoon). if i fill in my panels with this, and then build my outer leaf right up against these filled panels, then there will be no airgap and no third leaf. i'm not worried about or interested in any isolation properties of the foam or the garage door, i just want them to NOT HURT my two leaf wall performance, which will be made of a whole lotta gypsum on both sides. should work, right? this fills the airspace. no airspace = no third leaf. and it's lightweight so i don't have to worry about how to mount and attach massive garage door panels which i don't need since i am building a massive outer leaf anyway. dan

My thoughts were to use the garage door as your outer leaf. The 2 small wall sections on either side of the door could be beefed up with Gypsum between the studs. Caulk all the gaps...... and there you have it a massive outer leaf. Then you'd only have to worry about the inner leaf and the airspace, and there'd be no third leaf mystery going on. You'd also get an extra 4" of floor space, at least. Marcel

Marcel, not a bad idea, but often we talk about how important it is to overlap the seams on different layers of drywall. if we filled the door with something massive, it would still be in 5 different horizontal sections that do not overlap, and while these would be sealed with caulk but they would certainly be weak spots, don't you think? also these 5 sections would weigh quite a bit. even if i had help to handle them, it might be hard to get them into place without bending/cracking them. maybe they could be filled with mass in situ then ... still i'd have the problem of the weaker seams though. How big a problem is this? if additonal continuous layers were added on top of the door-fill, this might make it ok?? Dan

Without hinges and hardware in place the door sections should fit together rather tightly. First bottom panel:Caulk along the floor. big fat beeds to completely fill the gap. Calk along doorstop frame, and screw directly to door opening Frame. Second panel: caulk top of first panel, fat bead or two, to completely fill the gap, caullk again against door frame and screw the panel directly to the frame. Repeat for remaining panels. It'll be no weaker than your corner joints will be on your inner leaf. The key is caulking all the joints Really well. You'll probably need to be 3 guys to lift the panels in place, being careful that the middle of each panel is well supported. I'd use concrete mix, it's cheap and stiff. Once its setup, 3 days or so, those panels will be extremely difficult to break. You might have to beef up your door stops on the outside of the door to provide a good seal. Your inner leaf seal is far more critical than the outer leaf. I think the advantages of doing it this way outweigh the cosequences of a three leaf system. I really think. This would be extremely effective, coupled with the between studs drywall. You could also wrap each stud with strips of drywall to beef up the stud and plate areas. It's a small area... so it shouldn't add much labo in lieu of the extra wall you'd need otherwise. These are just the thoughts of a lowly construction guy, and I could be way off base. Maybe Steve can chime in here. Marcel

Turns out i had only one day to work this weekend so all i got accomplished was finishing bagging up ALL of the drywall i took down. About 13 bags worth. Started to experiment with plastering on the inside of the stucco to smooth it out before putting on drywall. There is paper and wire on on the surface of the stucco and i tried to plaster over this. But this isn't too good becuase obviously the plaster isn't adhering to stucco, only to paper, which is a little loose. :evil: :evil: :evil: also, the wire is really complicating things, even though it is theoretically "in the low spot" it moves and i'd rather get rid of it so it looks like i will remove all of the wire and paper so i can plaster right on the stucco. I don't think the paper and wire serve any function other than to keep the stucco in place while it's applied. Since it's been 39 years since it was applied i think it is safe to remove now :) BUT, A QUESTION: is it possible this thin, brittle, paper also serves as some lame moisture barrier? do i need a moisture barrier here? i don't know jack about moisture so i really haven't a clue ... :roll: If I DO need a barrier, there must be one that can be "painted on" ... THAT would be relatively easy. pic below to illustrate ...

here are a couple of pix of the experimental "joint compound over building paper" job i did yesterday. it has dried and is clearly NOT GOOD :evil: :evil: the paper is wavy and not in complete contact with the stucco in many places. when i apply joint compound these voids are not pressed down at all, they are still there they just have a layer of plaster on top of them. it is clear to me that if i continue on this path i may end up with a smooth surface on top, but with plenty of voids, perhaps 1/8 inch or possibly even 3/16, beneath. this paper, from what i've tried to find out today, is meant to prevent water intrusion but should let vapor out. sort of what i think tyvek does. tyvek, if i remember, lets vapor thru but not water. maybe i can remove this paper and replace with tyvek, but which is glued down firmly. the only problem is, what glue to use that is air permeable. or maybe there is a simple paint i can use that is the equivalent of this. clearly more research is needed. :roll: you know what might work ... and extremely spongy but non-airpermeable layer, say 3/4 inch uncompressed, in between the paper and the first layer of drywall. this would press into the irregular surfaces on the stucco side, but should not introduce a third leaf. any ideas or comments welcome!! [edited to improve pix brightness]

Dan Fitzpatrick wrote:

you know what might work ... and extremely spongy but non-airpermeable layer, say 3/4 inch uncompressed, in between the paper and the first layer of drywall. this would press into the irregular surfaces on the stucco side, but should not introduce a third leaf.

Sill seal (closed cell foam) maybe? Another thought is to rip all the paper off the wall and use stucco patch on the back side of the stucco, being careful make the surface as smooth and flat as possible. I would think stucco would stick to the back side of stucco... Right? :roll: Then you could apply "a barrier of some kind" (either Tyvek, a plastic vapor barrier, or a liquid coating, depending on what would be appropriate there -- I'm certainly no expert) before attaching your drywall strips. You rock, Dan! :) You're crafting an awesome learning resource here. 8) Think how much life this thread is going to have long after you're done with your project!! :mrgreen:

keith, i'm glad you think this is valuable ... it makes it a bit easier to do all this work when you can share what you learn & maybe help someone. :) i don't know why i didn't think to just use stucco :oops: ... that's definitely on the right track i think. i'm thinking maybe i can cut the existing paper and leave maybe a couple inches to fold forward on each side of the studs to maintain protection of the studs. then stucco. trim paper flush with new stucco then caulk stucco - paper -stud seam then some water resistant but airpermeable paint then layers of wallboard, caulking each layer phew! what a pain :x how does this sound? dan

I've got a lot to learn about construction, but I'm wondering about the "air permeable paint." That may very well be the way to do it. However, if you're not going to have any other barriers, then maybe plastic sheeting is the way to go. That would protect your drywall from the moisture that comes in through the stucco -- which I think is your greatest concern, since it will have hard contact with the stucco (or paint) and wicking could occur otherwise... And if any airborne moisture (vapor) comes from the room side through the drywall towards the plastic, it can leech back into the room over time. I would think a dehumidifier and a bulletproof A/C solution will be your ticket to reducing the amount of moisture going into the drywall from the room side. And I think Thermafiber SAFB and/or Roxul AFB have awesome water retention characteristics (much better than ordinary fiberglass), which would probably prevent vapor originating in the room from even reaching your outer leaf. Someone with more construction experience, please comment. :)

yeah just when i thought i had it all figured out, this moisture issue comes up and i don't know a thing about it. from what i understand, moisture can go from inside to outside or vice versa depending on which side is warmer. my ventilation system, at least the 1.0 version (we'll see how it goes) will be stictly outside air, and so my inside air should be the same as the outside air when the system is running (same moisture content, temperature etc). although i may use a space heater in the winter. of course the system won't be running all the time but in that case the room air should remain pretty much neutral anyway since it's not heated or cooled most of the time. so maybe this makes things easier. the reason i'm fixated on "air permeable" is that i suspect (not sure) that you can make things worse by completely blocking water vapor from escaping the wall. my thought is that even an "airtight" wall can have moisture pass in and out of it over time, and that's a good thing (for it to get out). anyway, forget the paint, i'm more thinking tyvek now. i notice they carry it at my home depot. according to rod gervais, tyvek breathes. but will it protect the gypsum enough, i don't know. it's going to be a stucco-tyvek-gypsum sandwich. EDIT: Good vapor barrier info here http://www.johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/viewt ... 5665#25665 and here: http://www.johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/viewt ... ture#26588 linked in above post: http://www.buildingscience.com/resource ... efault.htm i'm a little worried about sealing up a dehumidifier in my wall. is that common practice? i'm just concerned in general about relying an active system that has to be maintained to function, i think a passive system is much more practical over the long term. by the way i cut open some of the building paper last night to look at the stucco. even bumpier and more uneven than i imagined! pix soon. also, by the way, Home Depot has big sheets of 2" thick polystyrene insulation. if i'm correct, this is closed cell and could be a good way to "fill up" those panels in my garage door. :) it's not going to provide any additional isolation, it would just prevent the mass-air-mass resonance ... dan

Dan Fitzpatrick wrote:

. . . i'm more thinking tyvek now. i notice they carry it at my home depot. according to rod gervais, tyvek breathes. but will it protect the gypsum enough, i don't know. it's going to be a stucco-tyvek-gypsum sandwich.

That may be a winner... Protection of the "thirsty" gypsum bumped up against that stucco was my biggest concern, and perhaps Tyvek will address that.[/quote]

i'm a little worried about sealing up a dehumidifier in my wall.

No, I didn't mean in the wall -- I meant in the room since that's where the indoor humidity would be generated (humans exhaling air)... Right? :?

by the way i cut open some of the building paper last night to look at the stucco. even bumpier and more uneven than i imagined! pix soon. also, by the way, Home Depot has big sheets of 2" thick polystyrene insulation. if i'm correct, this is closed cell and could be a good way to "fill up" those panels in my garage door. :) it's not going to provide any additional isolation, it would just prevent the mass-air-mass resonance ...

Could you use that stuff against your bumpy stucco? Does it compress enough to fill most of the voids? Maybe you could use stucco patch on the most obvious low spots and get some closed cell stuff inside your sandwich, with or without the Tyvek (not sure)...? Basically, the closed cell stuff wouldn't for purposes of mass, but for helping flatten the mass that you already have. :roll:

sorry for the delay in answering, keith, it's been a busy week

sharward wrote:

That may be a winner...

hearing that from the "resident worry wart" is reassuring :)

sharward wrote:

Could you use that stuff against your bumpy stucco? Does it compress enough to fill most of the voids?

no it's too stiff to work that way. you'd need a heck of alot of pressure to make it work. ok, new business ... i've gotten off my ass and read up about moisture. anybody who is going to build walls that have an outside leaf exposed to outdoors should look at the page linked below (thanks knightfly for the link). it's good reading. informative reading. and pretty easy reading. you need to know this stuff, otherwise you can rot your walls. http://www.buildingscience.com/resource ... efault.htm so anyway. the asphalt paper under my stucco is not just for holding the stucco in place while it's applied. it serves as a vapor retarder and also as a drainage plane. if the stucco cracks, water can leak in but the paper will catch it and guide it back outside at the bottom of the wall. i'm not too worried about the vapor retarder part. vapor retarder is easy to replace, or move, no problem. continuity is not an issue. what does worry me a bit is the drainage plane part. i'll be eliminating the drainage plane here. a drainage plane is supposed ideally to be 3/8 inch, obviously that isn't going to work because you'd have a 3 leaf construction. after i smooth out the stucco with more stucco, i think instead of tyvek i'll use more asphalt paper. there is some advantage to asphalt paper because if there is a leak it will absorb the moisture and redistribute it as it soaks in, and spread out water will dry out faster. there is also some question in my mind based on what i've read how well tyvek works when in direct contact with stucco. so. smooth stucco. 2 layers of 30# asphalt paper. then drywall. i wonder about what type of drywall to use here. i see at home depot they have a paper-free drywall which is resistant to mold. i may use that. but is it more important to use this on the stucco side or the last layer on the inside? does mold grow where there's no air? maybe i should just use mold resistant throughout. but it's much more expensive. like $10 vs. $7 for 1/2 inch or around there. i'm not sure what would happen if my stucco cracked and water started going in. one has to assume this will happen. it's very hard to see cracks and holes from outside. it goes in and hits asphalt paper, spreads out, goes into the drywall eventually. even though there will be much caulk around the edges we have to assume it will get to the wood. but if this happens once in a blue moon it should all just dry out and be fine. i think. not so sure about the drywall. on the plus side it also occurred to me that if i leave the outer door of the studio open when not in use, that will vent the inside of the walls. so that should help moisture escape. also, one more plus i learned is that an airtight wall will keep out most of the moisture. much more moisture is carried into stuctures by air than by vapor diffusion. so that gives a studio an automatic advantage. but, one has to make sure to maintain the exterior and watch for damage.

ok, a little progress report. i've gone ahead and pretty much destroyed my vapor retarder paper behind my stucco. in preparation for adding more stucco to smooth things out. as i did this and contemplated how much work this would be, and how i ruined part of my wall's "safety net" irreparably, i wondered if i was doing the right thing. too late now! :twisted: seriously. i wondered, do i really know that a 1/4 inch gap (ok, maybe 1/2 inch) here and there under my drywall will have a serious impact on the wall's performance? isn't the m-a-m frequency of such a gap ridiculously high? maybe i could have saved a lot of effort and preserved the moisture barrier integrity of my wall by just putting the drywall up against the lumpy surface. it's relatively easy to recommend something to others, isn't it? then when you have to do it yourself, you're like, let me reconsider this ... :P anyway as i said, it's a bit late now for me. so we will move forward. but i know others are wondering the same thing. it would be worth looking at data to see what the impact of small gaps is. i seem to remember something like this coming into play with adding drywall layers to block walls. and i think it DID make things much worse. i'll have to find that. a couple of pix below :) the asphalt paper will remain between the studs and the stucco, and wrap around the studs about 3/4 inch or so.

Dan Fitzpatrick wrote:

. . . asphalt paper under my stucco is not just for holding the stucco in place while it's applied. it serves as a vapor retarder and also as a drainage plane. if the stucco cracks, water can leak in but the paper will catch it and guide it back outside at the bottom of the wall.

Oh yeah... :? Forgot about that... :oops:

. . . i wonder about what type of drywall to use here. . .

What about using WonderBoard with stucco patch buttered on the back of it with a notched trowel as your first layer? If stucco patch is too thick and chunky, then maybe a different sort of compound would be better. The point is, WonderBoard is (as I understand it) made for situations where moisture is expected.

i'm not sure what would happen if my stucco cracked and water started going in. one has to assume this will happen. it's very hard to see cracks and holes from outside.

Hey now! :evil: You're stepping on my territory, mister! I'm supposed to be the resident worry wart!! ;) Seriously... You are wise to be considering this and you're teaching us a lot by blazing this trail. For what it's worth, my in-laws had a home about your house's age (built in the early 1950s) that had a wall moisture problem. Water had seeped through the stucco on the southern wall, rotted out the studs, and ruined the interior wall surface. Yes, there was mold -- lots of it. They did the remediation/repair work themselves, but it was nasty (and they probably spread mold spores all over the house in the process!). After the repair they got vinyl siding installed on the house because they feared the same thing happening in other areas. You are right to be concerned about this.

on the plus side it also occurred to me that if i leave the outer door of the studio open when not in use, that will vent the inside of the walls. so that should help moisture escape.

Steve and I talked about that by phone -- yes, that's true.

. . . one has to make sure to maintain the exterior and watch for damage.

Dan, we haven't seen any illustrations or photographs of the outside of your home. What's directly on the other side of that wall you're destroying? ;) What's the condition of the stucco on the other side? Would a couple of fresh coats of paint help ease your (justified) fears of moisture penetrating the wall? Is there anything else you can do to help that wall stay dry? I noticed a lot of what appear to be moisture stains on the paper. Are those signs of leakage, or did that occur when the stucco was first applied decades ago? --Keith

sharward wrote:

What about using WonderBoard with stucco patch buttered on the back of it with a notched trowel as your first layer?

good call. that may well be the answer.

sharward wrote:

Dan, we haven't seen any illustrations or photographs of the outside of your home. What's directly on the other side of that wall you're destroying? ;)

ok i just took some, see below.

sharward wrote:

I noticed a lot of what appear to be moisture stains on the paper. Are those signs of leakage, or did that occur when the stucco was first applied decades ago?

probably signs of leakage. some of which may have been fixed. some of which is ongoing. the fence attaches to the wall thru the stucco and that made several holes that allowed water in. as i looked at the exterior i noticed a problem area i handn't noticed before, where two sections of the roof overlap. that is a potential problem as it looks like a recurring leak area and may also leak thru the roof where it can't be seen. it's right at the corner of where my studio will be so it needs to be looked at carefully. so cheers for getting me outside to look at that. there are some hairline cracks, so it does look like a coat of paint is in order. i think there is a paint made that is especially stretchy, so that it will take longer for the cracks to reappear. dan

stucco today! unfortunately i only had a few short hours to try this today, due to family obligations. but i was worried about getting started, seeing how hard it would be, etc. now that is behind me. good! got a firehose type nozzle that will spray a fine mist, and repeatedly sprayed the stucco to try to get it moist. sprayed all the stucco that i had exposed. that turned out to be unnecessary as i only ended up working on one between-stud section! mixed maybe about 1/3 of a 50lb bag, which turned out to be about right for a single section. it was pretty comical. most of the stucco went on the ground. i tried using a pretty big 14" rectangular concrete finishing trowel (i don't know the proper names for these things) but that didn't work too well. most of my progress was made with a 5" putty knife and a 7" triangular bricklayer type trowel with a round point. i'll post a pic of these tools on the next post. progress was slow. i found that starting with the edges closest to the studs worked well, as they are the deepest problem areas anyway and the studs help the stucco stick better. even moistening a lot, it was a bit hard to get the stucco to stick in some places. it's very smooth.

sharward wrote:

If stucco patch is too thick and chunky, then maybe a different sort of compound would be better.

i was using stucco, not stucco patch, but you are right it is too thick and chunky. although i finished the stucco i had mixed, after cleaning up i went right out to home depot and got some mortar. i'll report back how that worked when i get a chance to try it, maybe in a few days. overall i managed to do a pretty good job. the surface is rough, but it is much more flat than it was before. i obviously will have to do a second coat, but i'm going to use the mortar i think and i should get a very smooth hopefully flat finish. i was hesitant to try this during the week after work, because i didn't know how long it would take to get into it, finish and clean up afterward. after today, i'm pretty sure i can knock out further sections during the week, which is a good thing. i wouldn't want to try and tackle too much in a single session. it's not exactly difficult, but it is challenging and takes a lot of concentration. in the bottom pic below, you can see the lower part has new stucco and the upper part has not been done yet. dan

a few more pix of today's work. bottom photo: the big rectangular tool was too big to be much use, although it may work better on the final coat with mortar. at first i used the putty knife to apply most of the stucco, but toward the end i started using the trowel more, it can leave a nice smooth finish if it is used right.

Look at you!! 8) Gosh, I'm frightened now because you're using my ideas, and if they turn out to be a complete disaster, you're going to blame me and I'll go on record as the idiot that I truly am! :shock: ;) I'm just wondering if you could get away with doing this as your "beef up" solution! then it wouldn't have to be precisely flat! Would that be completely crazy? I hope that as the stuff dries, it doesn't want to peel off and fall down as one big chunk! :shock: It's a pretty smooth surface that it's trying to adhere to -- I wonder if that will be a problem... :roll:

sharward wrote:

I noticed a lot of what appear to be moisture stains on the paper. Are those signs of leakage, or did that occur when the stucco was first applied decades ago?

probably signs of leakage. some of which may have been fixed. some of which is ongoing. the fence attaches to the wall thru the stucco and that made several holes that allowed water in. as i looked at the exterior i noticed a problem area i handn't noticed before, where two sections of the roof overlap. that is a potential problem as it looks like a recurring leak area and may also leak thru the roof where it can't be seen. it's right at the corner of where my studio will be so it needs to be looked at carefully. so cheers for getting me outside to look at that.

Worry Wart, Reporting for Duty Sir! ;) Yes, please do tend to that stuff... Mold sucks.

there are some hairline cracks, so it does look like a coat of paint is in order. i think there is a paint made that is especially stretchy, so that it will take longer for the cracks to reappear.

I think there are patches for cracks too... Check the same section at Home Depot where you found the stucco patch. See Tim Carter's "Repairing stucco finishes takes time, patience and a little bit of luck." There's some useful information there that may help you in what you're doing inside the garage, plus your crack and/or hole repairs outside the garage. Now that I've read Tim's article, I'm really starting to worry about that first coat trying to adhere to a relatively smooth surface. There's no chicken wire for it to bite into, and there are no undercut holes for it to grab onto. :shock: Worry Wart, Out...

sharward wrote:

Gosh, I'm frightened now because you're using my ideas, and if they turn out to be a complete disaster, you're going to blame me and I'll go on record as the idiot that I truly am! :shock: ;)

don't worry! i'm only following advice that i think makes sense or that i agree with, so it will be my own fault if anything goes wrong. :)

sharward wrote:

I'm just wondering if you could get away with doing this as your "beef up" solution! then it wouldn't have to be precisely flat! Would that be completely crazy?

like adding 2 inches more stucco? that probably isn't crazy, but it might be more difficult and more expensive. certainly more difficult than adding some boards. :)

sharward wrote:

I hope that as the stuff dries, it doesn't want to peel off and fall down as one big chunk! :shock:

mmmm ... yeah i had that thought too, but there's enough irregularity, even some holes where i can see chicken wire. plus it only has to stay up until i put up the drywall (or whatever).

sharward wrote:

See Tim Carter's "Repairing stucco finishes takes time, patience and a little bit of luck." There's some useful information ...

cool, that's something i've needed :) :)

Dan Fitzpatrick wrote:

sharward wrote:

I'm just wondering if you could get away with doing this as your "beef up" solution! then it wouldn't have to be precisely flat! Would that be completely crazy?

like adding 2 inches more stucco? that probably isn't crazy, but it might be more difficult and more expensive. certainly more difficult than adding some boards. :)

Really though? Would it have to go up in layers, or could you slop it all on there at once? And would it really be more expensive than WonderBoard or other?

it would have to go up in layers. if you put on too much it will not stick, it will fall off from it's own weight. [sticking area:weight ratio too low]. also even if it would stick it would probably sag. but other than that i think it would just be much more difficult in general. keep thinkin outside the box though :)