Stucco Repair in Port Salerno, FL

Mixed Construction in an Old Fishing Village

Port Salerno grew up as a fishing village and much of it still reads that way. Small single story homes, tight lots, additions and enclosures built on over decades, and a mix of concrete block and older wood frame hidden under the stucco. It is not unusual for two walls on the same house to be built two different ways.

That matters before anyone picks up a trowel. Stucco over block and stucco over frame fail differently and get repaired differently. We sound the wall and work out what is behind it first. On frame sections we need to know the lath and the building paper are still intact, because if they are not, patching the face only hides the problem for a while.

Salt Load Near the Manatee Pocket

Homes close to the water here take salt spray directly, and the wind carries it several blocks back from the working waterfront. Salt sits on the wall and pulls moisture out of the air, which keeps the surface damp far longer than it would otherwise stay.

The visible result is almost always rust. Corner bead, lath, casing nails and old fasteners corrode, expand and crack the stucco outward. Once you see an orange stain running down from a corner, the metal behind it is already gone. Painting over that stain buys you a season at most before it comes back through.

• Rusted corner bead cut out and replaced, not painted over
• Corroded lath replaced where frame walls are affected
• Coated or corrosion resistant accessories used on repairs
• Salt washdown before any primer or coating is applied

Sealant, Windows and Wind Driven Rain

Storms come off the water here with real force behind them. Rain does not fall on these walls so much as it is driven into them, and it finds every joint that is no longer sealed. Window and door perimeters, roof to wall intersections, dryer vents, light boxes and old satellite mounts are the usual entry points.

Sealant on a salt and sun exposed elevation has a shorter life than the same product would inland. When it hardens and pulls away, water runs behind the stucco and stays there. That is what turns a small joint failure into a hollow section of wall that has to come off. Renewing sealant on a schedule is the cheapest stucco work you will ever pay for.

• Cutting out and replacing hardened perimeter sealant
• Sealing abandoned penetrations properly rather than filling with caulk
• Elastomeric systems on the elevations that take the weather
• Checking roof to wall details where water sheets down the face

Working on Compact Port Salerno Lots

Most lots here do not give you room to spread out. Side yards are narrow, driveways often have a boat or a trailer sitting in them, and the neighbor's wall can be a few feet from yours. Crews that plan staging on the morning of day one end up working badly or damaging something.

We work out access before we start. Ladder and small scaffold work where a full frame will not fit. Sheeting on the ground and over anything we cannot move, including on adjacent property when the work is that close to a line. Grinding and cutting get contained, because stucco dust travels and it does not come off a boat cover easily.

• Access and staging planned before the first day on site
• Protection for boats, trailers and neighboring property
• Dust containment on all cutting and grinding
• Work sequenced so the driveway is not blocked for the whole job

Martin County Permits and Older Additions

Port Salerno is unincorporated Martin County, so permits and inspections go through the county rather than a city building department. We pull whatever the scope requires and schedule the work around inspection rather than leaving a wall open.

Older homes in this area frequently have additions, carport enclosures and porch conversions done at various times by various hands. Every so often a repair opens up work that was never done properly. We will tell you plainly what we find and what it means before we close the wall back up, even when it is not the news anyone wants.