A hailstone that hits a stucco wall does not leave a neat dent. It leaves a small chip in the finish coat, a ring of fine cracks, or a spot where the color has rubbed off, and the damage is often easiest to see in low side light after a rain. Stucco is more forgiving than it looks, but a few hairline cracks can come from years of settling, freeze and thaw, or moisture that sits against the base. Those cracks do not come from a storm. The job for the next few weeks is to sort the two before the wall gets painted, patched, or quoted as one problem.
Storm and hail
Hail large enough to dent a gutter or crack a vinyl shutter is large enough to mark stucco on the windward side of the house. Walk the wall that faced the storm first, then the two walls on either side. Stand back about ten feet and look at the wall with the sun at a low angle, early morning or late afternoon, because strikes that vanish at noon can show as pale rings in shadow.
Stucco that has taken hail usually shows a clean, round or oval break in the finish, with a bright edge where the base coat shows through. Cracks from settling tend to run in straight lines, follow the corners of windows and doors, or open wider at one end. Map crazing, the fine interconnected network that appears as stucco ages, looks like a dried lake bed and covers large areas evenly. A storm mark is typically isolated, clusters on the face the storm came from, and has a broken edge rather than a hairline running through it.
What to photograph
Start with a wide photo of each wall taken from the same spot every time, so the views can be compared later. Then take close photos of every mark you see, with a ruler or coin in frame and the camera square to the surface. Shoot each mark from two angles, one straight on and one at a sharp side angle, because a chip that looks like a shadow head-on may show a clear edge from the side.
- Wide photo of each elevation, taken from one fixed spot with the date on the camera
- Close photo of each mark with a scale object in frame
- Low-angle photo in side light to bring out rings and rubbed areas
- Photo of any crack with a pencil or tape line showing its length at the start and end
- Photo of the stucco at grade, where splash and soil can hide early problems
Do not pressure wash the wall before photographing it. Water pushed into a fresh chip can make it look older than it is, and high pressure can enlarge the very crack you are trying to measure. A soft brush and a garden hose are enough to remove dust, and even that should wait until the photos are taken.
Cracks that are not hail
Stucco cracks for ordinary reasons in St. Louis. The freeze thaw cycle drives moisture into small openings in the finish, and when that water freezes it widens them a little each winter. A downspout that dumps water at one spot, or a gutter that overflows onto the wall, adds moisture the stucco then holds against the base. Settling foundations produce long diagonal cracks that start at a window corner. None of these is a storm mark, and the photo file should say so instead of letting them be counted as hail.
Ice damming at the eave can push water up behind the top course of stucco where it meets the roof, and the staining and cracking there is often mistaken for hail. If the top few feet of the wall are stained, check the roof edge and the gutter before blaming the storm. The roof and the wall have to be read together, because water that enters at the eave can show up on the stucco several feet below.
What it costs
The cost of stucco work depends on how much of the wall is affected, whether the finish can be matched, and whether the base coat is sound behind the mark. A single small chip usually needs a patch, a scratch coat, a finish coat, and paint that matches the wall. A larger area may need the damaged section cut back to sound material, the lath checked, and the wall painted corner to corner so the new finish does not stop at a visible line. Those are different jobs, and a written quote should say which one it is pricing.
Paint is the part that is often left out. A patch with the right texture but a slightly different shade will show, especially on a south or west wall where the sun fades the old color faster. Ask whether the quote includes painting the full elevation or only the patched area, and whether the paint is named by product and sheen.
Missouri has no matching statute for roofs, and no matching regulation either, so whether a repair has to match the rest of the house turns on the homeowner's policy wording, not on the contractor or the state. Keys does not handle that question for the homeowner. What Keys does is document the marks, put a written scope with photos and measurements in the homeowner's hands, and attend as the contractor while the homeowner deals with their own insurer.
What to ask
Before you agree to any stucco work, put these questions to the person writing the quote, and get the answers in writing.
- Which marks did you attribute to the storm, and which did you attribute to age, freeze and thaw, or moisture?
- Did you photograph each mark with a scale object in frame, and can I have the original files?
- Is the patch cut back to sound base coat, or is the new finish applied over loose material?
- Will the full wall be painted, and is the paint named by product and sheen?
- Who checks the lath or base coat if the damage goes deeper than the finish?
- What happens if the new patch shows a different texture after it cures?
Keep the photos in their original format, not screenshots, with the dates intact. A set of close marks with a wide view of each wall is the record you will want if questions about what the hail did come up later. If you are unsure whether a mark is from hail, call the Keys office at (314) 220-2333, ask for an inspection, and bring the wide and close photos with you.