Stucco repair costs in Syracuse

In parts of Syracuse, stucco sits on the bottom floor. The city's design guidelines for the Sedgwick-Highland-James Preservation District point out a pattern on its Craftsman, Bungalow and Arts and Crafts houses: wood clapboards on the upper floors and stucco on the first. Most of Sedgwick Farm's houses went up between 1908 and 1930, and alongside the Colonial Revival homes, owners built Mediterranean, Arts and Crafts, Prairie and Bungalow designs.

Stucco near the ground has a hard job in this city. It sits closest to snowbanks, splash-back and the water that runs off a porch roof.

If your house is in the district, exterior changes go to the Syracuse Landmark Preservation Board, and the city issues a Certificate of Appropriateness once the board approves. Its guidelines say original wall surfaces should be repaired rather than replaced, so plan on fixing that old first-floor coat, not stripping it.

Winter here is long and white. At Syracuse Hancock International Airport, records from 1903 to 2013 show about three Christmases in five with an inch or more of snow on the ground. On these houses, that means the first-floor stucco spends a good part of every winter with snow banked against it.