What is the deal with a stucco patch?

It is very difficult to perfect. Why? Because a stucco patch will never match.

When installing the stucco finish, you can’t stop until you reach a terminating end or dissimilar surface (terminating ends can be inside & outside corners). This is because when applying stucco on a wall, you only have about 20 minutes of working time. You don’t want to stop and start allowing enough time for the stucco to dry because you will see a noticeable difference in stop and starting points.

Consistency in mixing the stucco is crucial because if you add too much water or not enough, that may make the color of the stucco a shade lighter or darker. Once the stucco dries completely, a patch will be noticeable. The older the stucco, the worse the patch won’t match.

Trying to patch older stucco is difficult because the stucco has probably faded and the pores of the stucco has probably collected some particles from vegetation, dirt, rust, & run-off causing stains or discoloration.

A common stucco patch is around windows and doors because the only way to replace a window or door surrounded by stucco is tear off the stucco around the window or door. The best solution for this is to patch the stucco around the window or door and then put stucco trim around it so that it will hide the patch. If stucco trim is not an option to hide the patch, then the only way to make the patch disappear is to resurface the entire area using terminating ends or dissimilar surfaces. This helps better ensure blending of color and texture with the rest of the building.

If the texture matches but the color doesn’t then instead of adding an entire new layer of stucco, you can possibly paint the area to get a better match.