So the dreaded day arrived where I would experiment with the crack filling process. Not having done this before on such tiny cracks I wasn't certain which route to choose. In the end, I used sanded tile grout, in a color close to the original stucco color. Not that it matters as the repair should disappear after the paint goes on, but if that takes us a while, I think these repairs will be easier to live with than if I had chosen a bright white grout.
I dug out my modified grout tools, consisting of paint stir sticks, potato masher for mixing, and artists palette knives for application.
This is the size of the crack which is fairly typical. They are stress cracks in the stucco caused by the slightest settling, the drying process and any wood movement, of which if one thinks about, cement and wood probably shouldn't mix. I mean, we ensure there is sill gasket under all the boards that frame the walls and then we installed wooden window sills and plastered right up the to them. So these cracks appeared at the sills and in the corners above the rounded openings. Some are small hairline cracks that we won't fill.
The process was to wet the crack, apply to the best of ones ability the grout, then texture it the same way we did the walls, using foam insulation rubbed over the fix.
This is the end result, about 20 minutes later. Pretty sure once it's painted it won't be seen. Just not sure how they won't reappear. This is not a process I want to be continually working at. Some day, we'll just have to call it done!
