5 Common Causes for Parging to Fail

Over time, parging will crack and spall off your foundation walls requiring a parging specialist like Kavanagh Masonry to repair the work. Depending on the location, an adequately applied two coats of parging can last over 30 years or as little a 3-5 years if exposed to certain conditions. Ultimately, parging is considered to be a sacrificial product meaning it acts as a protective skin to your exposed foundation and will require repairs over time.

In this article, we will discuss five of the most common reasons your parging will fail and the importance of hiring a qualified professional to have your parging repairs completed.

1. Salt, Water, and Snow

These three elements can accelerate the deterioration of your parging from lasting 30 years to lasting only three. Parging adjacent to high foot traffic areas of the home frequently exposed to heavy saturations of salt and water or an accumulation of standing snow will cause rapid failure.

Salt will penetrate the parged foundation wall or step leading to corrosion under the surface. This will cause the bond to fail. This is why foundations inside a garage or the foundation piers in front of a garage are so susceptible to early signs of damage. The constant exposure to leaching road salts and water soluble salts carried in by your vehicle causes accelerated deterioration.

An area around your home with poor drainage or faulty gutters can also cause perpetually saturated parging. When cool weather arrives, the absorbed water will freeze and expand creating cracks or spalling.

2. Inadequate Bonding

This reason for failure is typically the fault of the contractor. In parging, ensuring a strong bond between the foundation wall and the freshly applied coating is absolutely critical.

If a wall was not cleaned properly before application, dirt, loose material, or stains can cause the bond to fail.

A wall must be dampened before applying the first parging coat. If the wall is not damp enough, the parging will set too fast and it will loose all of its strength. Should the wall be too wet, the pores in the wall will be oversaturated which prevents the parging mix from bonding properly.

3. Extreme Heat

Like with most cemeticious products, the slower parging is able to cure, the stronger it will be. If the parging dries too fast it will loose all of its strength and not bond adequately to the wall. This is why in many cases during the hot season, wet burlap and plastic is used to shade and provide moisture to the newly coated wall for three days in order to maximize its strength.

4. Cold Weather

Parging is seasonal work for an important reason. Parging requires a period of at least one week minimum with temperatures sustained above 5C in order to cure optimally. Colder temperatures can cause water expansion and for the new coating to fail and crack.

5. Improperly Mixed Parging

If a new mixture of parging is mixed for too long or with inadequate methods, it can lead to excess air entrainment. While air entrainment allows for better workability of the product, too much can cause it to loose its strength in the hardened state.

Similarly, if too much water is used in the mixture, the parging will have a low final hardened strength which can lead to cracking.

Conclusion

Regardless of the reason your parging failed, it is critical for the longevety of your foundation to have it repaired by a qualified professional. Kavanagh Masonry parging repairs and new foundation parging is always completed by a Red Seal Certified Mason, meaning you will recieve guaranteed professional, quality service.