What to do about stucco cracks?

Too often we see houses sprayed with 50% paint, in one direction, with little pre-work beforehand. One time, while we were painting a customer’s interior, we watched a local painting company power wash the neighbor’s house for 10 minutes. 10 minutes??? It takes us 1-3 hours to properly power wash a house before painting!
Not to mention that this neighbor’s house had a ton of stucco cracks, and none of them got filled before painting.

During the Las Vegas exterior house painting a lot of contractors will skip over the crack-filling, saying it’s not necessary. But the cracks are ugly, and if left unattended will eventually turn into stucco damage (chunks of stucco falling off your home).
We always offer an option to the homeowner for filling the stucco cracks, because we believe it helps ensure the long-term life of the stucco. We use a urethanized caulk sealant with a “blotching” technique to help the crack repair blend into the stucco (otherwise you get shiny spiderweb lines from the repairs).

Filling the cracks goes a long way toward properly painting a house… Just like using great paint, spraying it multiple directions to penetrate the rough stucco, and doing proper prep beforehand.