Block Wall, Garden Wall and Column Stucco Repair in Phoenix

Stucco flaking at the base of the wall

Irrigation that sprays or drips against a block wall keeps the base wet. The water soaks into the block, moves through the stucco, and leaves white mineral deposits as it dries. Over time the stucco loosens, bubbles and flakes off from the bottom up. Soil, mulch or gravel piled against the wall does the same thing by holding moisture.

The repair is to remove the loose stucco, let the block dry, and re-stucco the damaged area in base coat and finish coat textured to match. Block takes stucco directly, with no paper or lath, so this is a simpler patch than on a house wall. Then the soil gets pulled back.

Cracked and spalling block

Block that's cracked, chipped or flaking itself, not just the stucco on it, has been wet for a long time or took a hit. Spalled faces get patched with a cement repair mortar before the stucco goes on. A block that's broken through gets replaced. A long horizontal crack along a mortar joint, or a stair-step crack following the joints, can mean the wall is moving, and that's worth a look before patching.

Wall caps

The caps on top of a block wall sit in mortar, and the mortar fails. Caps slide, tip and fall. Loose caps get lifted, the old mortar cleaned off, and the caps reset in fresh mortar. Missing caps get matched and replaced. A wall with no cap takes water straight down into the block, so a missing cap is worth fixing promptly.

Columns, pilasters and planters

Gate columns and the pilasters along a wall take the same water damage and also take bumps from cars and gates. A gate column that's cracked at the hinge side often has a loose gate pulling on it, and the gate gets fixed at the same time. Planters hold wet soil against the block on the inside, and the stucco on the outside fails from it. A waterproof coating inside the planter stops it.

The bottom of the house

Many Valley homes have a few courses of block at the bottom of the frame walls, stuccoed to match the rest. The stucco there fails for the same reasons as a garden wall, and gets repaired the same way. Where block meets the frame wall above it, there's a joint that needs the weep screed kept clear.

Painting

Block walls are painted, and a patch shows until it's painted to match. On a garden wall, painting the whole run of wall between two columns usually looks better than feathering a patch, and it's not much more work.

Tempe's rule

Tempe's property maintenance code counts a wall with missing blocks or loose caps as a violation, and requires the repair to match the existing wall. That's how we do every wall repair, in every city.

Problems we fix on this page

• Brick wall leaning
• Want a brick or stone wall rebuilt
• Block wall stucco peeling
• Block wall cap loose
• Block wall cracked
• Block wall stained white from sprinklers
• Block wall chipped
• Want a block wall painted
• Block wall leaning
• Block wall fell in a storm
• Block wall cracked all the way through
• Want a new block wall

How it starts

Send a photo of the damaged section and one from a few feet back showing the wall and the ground in front of it. If a sprinkler or drip line is near the damage, show it. You get one price for the job before we start. Levi is on site, and we stand behind the work for a year.