Parging offers an effective and aesthetic way of shielding your foundation wall against elements such as snow, rain, wind, and ice, or even insects and dirt. It may also mask imperfections on your foundation wall. While it can help protect your home from moisture, mostly, parging is done for aesthetic reasons. It can feature different shapes and textures depending on the preferences and requirements of the owner and the creativity of the mason. You can choose the typical parging, or consider other parging alternatives. If you’re considering parging your home, you can discuss with stucco contractors the various parging systems available.
So, let’s look at what options there are as well as the pros and cons of each.
Acrylic Stucco Finishes
You can use acrylic stucco as a viable option for parging over concrete foundation walls. However, not all concrete foundation walls can effectively be parged using acrylic stucco. This kind of parging system comprises the last three layers Exterior Insulation and Finish Systems, commonly referred to as EIFS. These layers are the base coat – usually embedded in fiberglass mesh, the skim coat, and lastly the finish coat.
If you choose acrylic stucco finish parging, you need to realize that it costs more than the regular parging – at least twice as much.
The reason acrylic stucco is costlier than regular parging is that it requires an expensive acrylic finish coat and a different cement mixture, often a thin layer applied over leveled and sanded foam boards. Due to the nature of materials used and the labor time consumed, the cost of the acrylic stucco finishes increases drastically.
Something to mention here is that the acrylic parging system isn’t a good option for parging repairs. When doing parging repairs, you will need to fill the cracks and holes with thick-layered cement mud, which may not offer a properly leveled surface. Acrylic finish coats will give an ugly texture that appears wave-like and uneven, often due to the plastic float. Unless you perfect the leveling of the surface, you will always have these imperfections in parging repairs.
Stone Veneer Parging
Let’s face it – stonework is durable. It’s also beautiful, but expensive. It will cost you more for a simple parging coverage unless you go with a “plastic stone” system.
If you’re willing to meet the cost and want a smooth finish with an option to choose over 100 different colors, then you may want to consider an acrylic finish. It offers a great curb appeal on newly laid concrete foundations. You can get excellent results with this parging system, especially when you apply it on insulated concrete form (ICF) foundations featuring foam-based insulation.
That said, if you decide to apply stone veneer parging, you need to realize that there are two different stones you will find in the market – natural and man-made. You may also use “plastic stones”, however, these are not recommended because using them means you invite problems.
Made-made stones are not as strong or durable as their counterpart natural stones, since they are manufactured. However, they do perform well when it comes to insulation and aesthetics.
A downside with a stone veneer parging is the cost. It’s the most expensive of the three – it costs more than regular parging and acrylic stucco finish.
So, you see, there are various ways you can decorate and protect your home foundation other than using the regular parging.
Let Depend Exteriors Offer you Parging Solutions!
We specialize in parging, new stucco installations, as well as stucco repairs for not only homes but also commercial buildings. If you are seeking parging solutions, contact Depend Exteriors. Visit us at https://dependexteriors.com/ for more information.
Depend Exteriors
8615 176 street NW Edmonton AB T5T 0M7
(780) 710-3972
