Bricks, Masonry, Asphalt and Concrete - Stucco Falling off House

I have recently had two pieces of concrete (not synthetic) stucco fall off my house (house built in 1985...I bought it in 2000). One piece was around 1ft. x 20' long. Neither piece of concrete stucco has a wire mesh behind it and I wonder how it stayed on the house. I called a stucco expert and he said that he did some repair work on my chimmey before I purchased it (chimmey hit by tree). He said there was no "lathe?" on the chimmey when he took off the old stucco and that he felt the entire house did not have a lathe on it. I am very concerned that more large pieces could fall off my house. Could the entire house not have a lathe on it? How would the stucco stay on the walls. It is a two story house.

I paid extra for a stucco inspection when I bought the house and it passed. Now there are large cracks showing up after 5 years and I have noticed that it looks like many of them had some patch work done, filled with caulk and/or painted over.

I am very concerned that I am going to have to take all the stucco off. Can it be repaired?

Welcome to the forums

Is your house made of block? Often block homes are stuccoed directly to the block with good results. If there is block behind the stucco, the fix is fairly easy. Just mix up some stucco and plaster the affected areas. It has been my experience that stuccoed block last longer when it is painted [I assume the paint keeps water from deteriating the bond]. I don't know how stucco would adhere to a house without lathe unless it is block.

Wow. What a quick reply..................

The foundation is block around the bottom of the house. The stucco on that part is ok.

The two large pieces that have come off are:

1) Approx. 12 to 16 inch wide, "band", that goes all the way around the bottom of the house(right about the block foundation). One 20 ft. piece came off.

2) Approx. 2 ft. piece bove the front door/below a large window. The stucco covered used to cover piece of large wood moulding. The wood moulding is currently exposed and there is no wire mesh up there. If this piece fell off when someone was under it...it could have killed them.

I've painted [and sometimes repaired] a lot of stucco but I'm not a mason. I suppose you could add lathe and repair the affected areas but that won't help the rest of the stucco. Hopefully someone more knowledgeable will answer. Did the stucco expert say how he repaired the chimney?

Wish you luck :)

The stucco repair guy said a tree hit the house during a storm and damaged the chimney. He was hired by a general contractor to repair the stucco on the chimney. He said the had to remove all the stucco to the ground on three sides to make the repair match the house (makes sense). He said when he took the rest of the stucco off the chimney, it came off in big sheets and had no mesh/lathe on the wood.

He said he repaired the chimney correctly using a mesh....basically he said he fixed it correctly..but he is not sure about the rest of the house.