Wish I could ask for a show of hands to see how many of you reading this article have lived with cracked stucco? Anyone who has lived in a stucco home in a 4 season climate zone has their hand up! Stucco does not expand and contact with cold-warm temperature fluctuations like wood does. If you haven’t had this experience, just Google “Stucco Cracks”. You’ll find over 200K results!

The Stucco Guy even says in his blog post, “There are two types of stucco houses, one that is cracked and ones that are going to”. Cracking is inevitable when it comes to stucco, just like any type of cement based product. Expansion, wind and stress all play vital roles in why cracking occurs.”

Why do builders continue to use it?

Two reasons are:

1. Stucco costs less than wood siding materials
2. Stucco is fire proof
3. It’s what they know how to do
4. It’s what they know how to price out

During the development of the Haven™ home, our R&D team spent hours and hours researching alternative siding products. Although most traditional geodesic dome homes use wood siding, wood requires a lot of maintenance as it breaks down over time. Wood siding doesn’t hold up to harsh weather conditions well, and it isn’t fireproof. Our model home is in a high fire danger area and subject to current Wildland Urban Interface (WUI ) Codes. We tried a number of products that are sustainable in nature, are waterproof, have insulative qualities, and fire resistance.  before we were thrilled to find StuccoMax™ by GigaCrete.

We chose to use StuccoMax™ on our Haven™ homes because of its waterproof qualities, durability, strength, fire resistance, mold and mildew resistance, and ease of application. This amazing product is everything that GigaCrete has said it would be. It’s literally a “green”, healthy compound that does not contain Portland Cement, can seriously be eaten (I’m told), and is water soluble. All these qualities do not in any way compromise performance, cost, or simplicity. The Haven™ model home was our first experience with StuccoMax™. We found that it was easily applied with a sponge float with a very low skill level.

In addition to all of the positive attributes of the product, we were extremely happy to find that GigaCrete is a Nevada company based in Las Vegas. They’re not a mega-corporation with many layers of accessibility. The staff at GigaCrete were extremely helpful and answered any questions we had in order to help make the project go more smoothly for us.

For all homes, StuccoMax™ can be applied directly to the exterior sheeting in one application, without the need for a house wrap or chicken wire. On the Haven™ homes, we use Jet Board. These two products are a match made in chemistry class. They naturally bond together. Add to that the elastomeric qualities of StuccoMax™, and you have a siding material that is much harder than stucco, does not crack as it expands and contracts with temperature fluctuations, looks absolutely fabulous; all for the same or less money than stucco applications. After the StuccoMax™ cures, just paint with your favorite color choice.

What’s not to like?!?!?!