Hiring

What a Good Stucco Quote Actually Contains

A stucco quote is a description of work with a number at the bottom. Here is what belongs in the description, and how to lay two quotes next to each other and see the real difference.

The number is the smallest part of the document

Homeowners read a quote from the bottom up. The trade reads it from the top down, because everything above the total is what you are actually buying. Two estimates on the same Port St. Lucie house can be four thousand dollars apart and both be fairly priced, because one is coating a wall and the other is rebuilding it.

There is no legal template for this. Some good contractors write two pages, some write six. What separates a useful quote from a thin one is whether a stranger could read it and know exactly what will be done to your house without asking you a single question.

That is the test to apply. Hand the quote to someone who was not there when it was written. If they cannot picture the finished work, neither can you, and neither can the crew on the morning it starts.

Scope written elevation by elevation

Houses do not fail evenly. The south and west walls take the sun, the windward side takes the storm rain, and the shaded north wall grows the algae. It is normal for one elevation to need removal and rebuild while another needs nothing but a coating, so a quote that treats the house as one item is hiding the differences.

Look for the walls named individually. Front, rear, left, right, or north, south, east, west, whichever the contractor uses, as long as it is consistent. Then a described scope under each one. The gable ends and any second story should be called out separately, because on most Florida homes those are frame with wire lath while the walls below are block, and they are different work.

Detail areas deserve their own lines too. Window and door perimeters, foam bands, columns, the soffit line, and the base of the wall near grade are where most of the labour hides on a repair job.

• Each elevation named, with its own described scope
• Gable ends, second story and dormers separated from block walls below
• Window and door perimeters called out, including sealant work
• Bands, columns, quoins and other trim listed rather than assumed
• Any elevation excluded from the job stated plainly as excluded

Square footage, and where the number came from

Ask any quote to state the area it is priced on. Square feet of wall for a resurface or a new install, square feet of removal for a repair, linear feet for crack routing and for banding. Without it you cannot compare two documents and you cannot check a change order later against anything.

Also ask how it was measured. There is a real difference between a contractor who walked the house with a wheel and a laser, and one who pulled the square footage off a property appraiser record and multiplied. The second method is a guess, and guesses go one direction once the job starts.

For repair work, the measured area should be the sounded area rather than the visible damage. If a crew taps the wall and finds hollow material running three feet past the crack, the quote should be priced on three feet past the crack. That is why the sounding matters before the quote and not after.

Materials named, not just the word stucco

Stucco is a system, not a product. A quote should say what is going on the wall in enough detail that you could buy it yourself. Which base coat product or mix, how many coats and their nominal thickness, what lath and what fasteners if any are going up, what the finish is and at what texture and grit, and what coating or paint goes over it.

Named products matter for a practical reason beyond quality. Manufacturer warranties usually apply to the system as a whole, so mixing a base from one line with a finish from another can leave you with materials that work fine and paperwork that covers nothing. If a manufacturer warranty is part of what you are being sold, the quote should reflect a matched system.

It also settles the texture argument in advance. Knockdown, sand, dash, lace and worn versions of each are different products and different labour. Written down, they are a specification. Spoken, they are two people picturing different walls.

• Base coat material and number of coats, with nominal thickness
• Lath type, fasteners and any weather resistant barrier where framing is involved
• Finish product, texture name and grit or aggregate size
• Coating or paint system, number of coats and colour reference
• Sealant type at perimeters and joints

Prep, the repair allowance, and the concealed condition clause

Prep is a line item, not a courtesy. Pressure washing, scraping failed coating, routing cracks, treating any corroded metal, priming, masking windows and screens. On an older Fort Pierce or Stuart house the prep can be a real share of the labour, and a quote that skips it either absorbed the cost quietly or plans to bill it later.

Then there is the part nobody can price honestly: what is behind an intact wall. Good quotes handle this in one of two ways. An allowance, which is a stated quantity of repair included in the price, for example a set number of square feet of removal and rebuild, with a written rate for anything beyond it. Or a concealed condition clause, which states what happens when unexpected damage is found: work pauses, you are shown photographs, a change order is written and signed, and only then does work continue.

Either approach is fine. What you do not want is silence, because silence means the conversation happens with your wall already open, which is the worst possible negotiating position for both of you.

Access, protection and the exclusions list

How the crew reaches the work is a cost, and it belongs in writing. Ladders, scaffold, a lift, or working off a roof edge are all different numbers, and on a two story Palm City house with a pool cage in the way, the access method can drive the schedule more than the plaster does.

Protection should be stated too. What gets covered, how landscaping and irrigation are handled, where the mixing station sits, where wash water goes, and who cleans what at the end of each day. On a lot with a screen enclosure and mature plantings, this is not a detail.

The exclusions list is the most useful paragraph in any quote and the one homeowners skip. It is the contractor telling you exactly where their responsibility stops. Read it first, actually, because it tells you what will land on your list.

• Access method and equipment, with any lift or scaffold priced separately
• Protection of landscaping, screen enclosure, pool deck, driveway and windows
• Permit responsibility, whether it is included, excluded or not required
• Common exclusions: painting, structural repair, wood rot, roofing, window replacement
• Debris removal and daily cleanup, and who supplies water and power

Timeline, terms, and reading two quotes side by side

A timeline on a stucco quote should include the waiting. Days on site, cure days between coats, and a stated allowance for weather, because from June to September the afternoon storm is the rule rather than the exception. A schedule with no weather days in it was written by somebody who has not worked a Treasure Coast summer.

Terms should name a deposit, progress payments tied to visible milestones, and a final payment that comes after your walkthrough of every elevation. The warranty should be in the document rather than promised verbally, with its duration and its exclusions.

Then do the comparison properly. Put the two quotes in two columns and line up the same eight rows: area, removal depth, coats, lath, finish and texture, coating scope, allowance for hidden damage, access. Nine times out of ten the price gap explains itself in one of those rows, and you stop choosing between numbers and start choosing between plans.

• Start window, days on site, cure days and stated weather allowance
• Deposit and progress payments tied to specific completed milestones
• Change order process and rate for additional work
• Warranty duration, what is covered and what is excluded
• How long the quoted price stays valid