A common desire among homeowners is to transform their home’s heavy stucco finish into a beautiful, Santa Barbara smooth stucco finish. The Santa Barbara smooth finish produces a polished look, with a touch of elegance. The Santa Barbara smooth finish will generally create subtle trowel marks and undulations in color. Often times, the subtle trowel marks and undulations in color are compared to an artists brush strokes on a fresh canvas. Applying a Santa Barbara finish takes a highly skilled stucco technician.

As with any intricate project, prep work is one of, if not the, most important steps in the overall process. For new construction stucco, a traditional 3-coat system (scratch, brown, color) has been used for decades and will continue to be an industry standard. For re-stuccoing a home, there have been continued advances in the products used to prepare the surface and create a new substrate to allow a better application of a Santa Barbara smooth stucco finish. Merlex Stucco has created the latest in advancements – LEVELX.