Stucco repair costs in Baltimore

Walk through Highlandtown or Pigtown and you'll see Baltimore's own kind of stucco: Formstone. It's a cement coating shaped and tinted to look like stone. The name dates to 1937, and it was sold to rowhouse owners as low-cost, easy weatherproofing. By the 1950s it was on block after block.

Preservationists have long argued that it damaged the brick underneath and trapped water vapor inside. So if your Formstone is cracking or pulling away, patching the face is only half the question. The other half is what shape the brick behind it is in.

In a CHAP historic district, the city's preservation commission has clear rules. Its design guidelines say to repair stucco with a mix like the original, never to fill cracks with sealant, and, in most cases, not to swap old stucco for EIFS. Stucco can come off where it was never historically right, but only after a test panel shows the masonry under it survived. Painted Formstone is allowed. If you apply for a building permit first, it sits on hold until CHAP staff issue an Authorization to Proceed.

Weather sets the calendar. CHAP wants stucco repairs done when the temperature will stay above 50°F for at least three days afterward, so a winter patch job may have to wait for spring.