stucco advice

[gjbingham]

Wow,
That's a great answer Mojoe. Where you been. There's tons of questions floating around about cement/concrete/stucco. Don't be a stranger!

[Mojoe]

I've been deligently working on recipes in preparation for the spring thaw. I got about 90% of my oven complete late in the year and only made a paltry 20 pizzas... time for the oven to earn its keep.

[talisker63]

Hey just use the pre-mixed render from Bunnings (our version of Home Depot). I am going to color mine with oxide for the final coat.

Can you please answer the second part of the question, that is do we need to do the "chicken wire thing" for the last stucco / render to stick to?

thanks

[Mojoe]

Regarding color, it's all about consistent proportions. If you do not maintain the same portions of your raw materials (cement,sand,oxide pigment,water,etc.) you may see color variations in the batches after final curing.

Typical stucco application calls for diamond lathe have also read chicken wire. Admittedly, I'm not well versed in the application, just the materials. I work for a cement manufacturer in the Midwest where stucco is not that prevelant.

[gjbingham]

"The book" says to use building paper and expanded metal lath (diamond) over wood or non-concrete or non-masonry based products. Then comes a scratch coat, then brown coat and finally the finish coat. On concrete blocks for example, only the base coat and finish coat are needed. No chicken wire.

If you use vermiculite/concrete for insulation outside the dome, you will need chicken wire or similar to keep that in place. Some of that wire will still be exposed once that layer is cured, because that material will not stay in place without the external support of the wire. That exposed wire and rough surface of the vermicrete will be rough enough to support your first layer of stucco.

Others, please jump in and correct me if I'm off base.

[arevalo53anos]

I agree with GJB.
Just will be necessary to wait until the vermiculite/cement be dry (good when hard and hollow when gently beated)

Luis

[RCLake]

Mieno,
How did your stucco project go, any advise? I'm planning on doing it tomorrow over 4-5" of ceramic blanket.

George,
I'll use the recipe from 'the book' and was wondering how much to make? The area over the blanket will be about 33 sf and an inch (????) would be less than 3cf or about 19 gallons. Sounds like one batch to me.

I'm putting chicken wire over the blankets and was wondering how I'll anchor that down to the dome.

[james]

We have used a two-pass process for our entire house project. The first coat (Uno) has a setting agent, where it dries quickly and does not leave any cracks. Great stuff. Then we hit it with the white smooth coat. We have painted everything (after sealing the concrete), rather than doing color-in. It gives a nice old-world look, rather than the more modern acrylic stuccos.

We buy it at our local big building supply store (Granite Rock).

Here are photos. Great stuff.
James

[telehort]

James,
How long did/would you cure the stucco around an oven enclosure before painting?

[gjbingham]

RC,
I used three-and-a-half 80 LB bags of base coat on my 37 inch oven. For the finish, I used two bags, of which about 1/3 was disposed of because it set faster than I could place it.