Cracked stucco in Calgary: repair, re-coat, or tear it off?

Not every stucco crack is a crisis. Calgary's freeze-thaw cycling produces hairline cracking on almost every stucco home over fifteen years old, and most of it is cosmetic.

The cracks that matter are wider than a credit card edge, run diagonally from window corners, or come with staining, bulging or a hollow sound when tapped. Those suggest water behind the finish or failed lath.

A patch and acrylic re-coat on a single elevation is the common fix: prep, mesh the crack, base coat, then a colour-matched acrylic finish across the whole wall so there's no patchwork look.

Full removal to the sheathing is only warranted when the base coat or lath has failed, or when moisture testing shows trapped water. It costs several times a re-coat, so insist on evidence before agreeing to it.

While the scaffolding is up, adding a brick or stone veneer wainscot along the foundation is the cheapest curb-appeal upgrade available, it covers weathered concrete and protects the most splash-exposed part of the wall.

Always get texture and colour sample boards approved on the wall in daylight. Stucco colour reads completely differently in shade.