Stucco Alternative

[skymeat]

So we started stuccoing the dollhouse. After shopping around for dollhouse stucco the best price I found was 8oz for about 8 bucks. I got a box of white dry sand free tile grout, 96oz for 5 bucks. It's going on perfectly, and is looking wonderful. I don't know what the dollhouse mix is comprised of, but this grout is cement, and it will require the requisite curing concrete would.

Skymeat

[havanaholly]

There are several ways to simulate stucco in mini. One is to mix craft sand into the paint to paint your surface. Some folks use paperclay (if you have a papermache recipe you like, you could use that, instead). My personal economical choice is (of course) spackling compound, but joint compound & drywall mud will work as well. Finally, some folks lay wrinkled single layers of facial tissue onto the fresh paint and tamp at it with the paintbrush to get a textured stucco look, and when it's dry give it a final coat of paint.

[skymeat]

I was looking at spackling, but I didn't know off hand what was in it. My best recollection is that it's pretty much like drywall or plaster of paris, so it would end up being soft. Might be wrong, I just remember patching holes growing up and the result drying pretty soft.

I test painted the (real) climbing wall in the garage with several texture paints when I was building it, whatever we did the grit was applying unevenly, and I thought it would be too hard to work with when trying to reproduce in small scale.

The reason I choose the grout is that it will continue to harden for decades, and the final texture is PERFECT (though very labor intensive). Also, we applied it like the real thing, a scratch coat followed by a texture coat; it looks great and is close to what you would do with a real house (which I like). We did omit felting and wiring before the scratch coat, but roughed the surface with 40 grit paper to simulate felting and add the requisite surface area for the mortar to adhere to.

Skymeat

[butlerestates]

I use the stucco patch. That's what the bucket says anyway. It is for mending small places on your actual stucco. It worked great for me. I used it to hide the damage to an old house. I covered the front porch with it and then painted it to look more concrete like and also I stuck my little pebble rocks in it! It was so wasy to use and cleaned up easy. I don't know the price comparison of this verse other items but it seemed cheaper than the dollhouse stuff and I could grab some from Lowe's or even Wal-mart.

P.S. this was not gritty like some grout is so the scale worked fine.

[rodentraiser]

I had a very small 2 room house that I had stuccoed once with either spackle or wood filler - I don't remember which. Before I was done (I had two walls finished), I had to put the house in storage and it didn't get touched until a year later. Then I decided to do something a little different with it and took a hammer to knock it apart. Imagine my surprise when all that stucco just slid right off the wall every time I whacked the wall with a hammer. Smooth as silk too - didn't leave anything behind. I was actually able to paper that wall with just a minimum of sanding.

[havanaholly]

I use spackling compound for stucco, "stone" and a lot of other faux finishes. If you check out the Team Glencroft Blog I used it inside and outside, as well as on one of the floors, chimney & fireplaces. Not only is it NOT soft, anywhere, nearly five years later, it is holding up just fine. I also used spackle for the stonework on the Orchid (Team Orchid Blog) and the McKinley (my McKinley album), and the coquina tabby on Maggie. I don't strongly endorse a product's properties I haven't tried personally, and I have been pleased enough with spackling compound to take upon myself the title of its queen...

[Wolfie]

I use stucco patch all the time and just love it. If you want it less "lumpy and bumpy" you can thin it down with a bit of water and smoooth it on...... It works for me. Dollhouse stucco is expensive and uneconomical.

[nechee]

I added baby powder to white paint to get a thick pudding like texture. After I painted it on I pounced it with an old towel. When it was dry I painted 2 layers of my colour paint over it. Worked out fantastic. I got a nice light texture which was what I was looking for. And it was very cheap. A dollar for the baby powder and a dollar for the white paint. I looked for the stucco patch and could not find it at Lowe's or Home Depot near me. I gave up and used the baby powder technique that someone on this forum told me about. The grout sounds like a great idea though and I think I might try that on my ceilings to get a more textured look like RL ceilings.

[Wolfie]

ACE is where I get my stucco patch. Comes in a quart size container. I usually but two to four quarts at a time. You could get the gallon size, but it dries out quickly if opened and used and then closed up again and left to sit for any amount of time. The quarts or pints are better. ACE is my building supply here in Seeley Lake. However, they may shut down soon. Seeley Lake is undergoing big changes. We are becoming a town of retirees with no stores, no businesses. We hope this is not the norm, but with the closing of the one big business in town - a lumber mill - all of those people who supported the town that worked there are leaving.