Washington Elite Stucco: Decorative Stucco & Architectural Details, Foam Trim and Cornices in Washington, UT

What We Do

Decorative Stucco & Architectural Details We Fabricate and Install

Decorative stucco and architectural details are shaped pieces that add borders, caps, brackets and repeating ornament to a wall. We fabricate every item below away from the wall and then set the completed shape onto finished stucco. Because each piece is made separately, you can add any of these details to an already finished house or include the same detail on a new house. Stucco foam trim is one common form with an EPS foam core.

A profile is the outline that gives a band, sill or surround its visible steps, curves and depth. We group the shaped pieces into four profile families according to their location and form: details at rooflines and corners, three-dimensional pieces around openings and supports, borders around doors and windows, and repeating ornament across a wall face.

Cornices, Window Sills, Wall Caps and Corner Quoins

On your house, a cornice is the horizontal band that caps the wall at the roofline. The cornice gives the top of the wall a defined edge instead of ending the wall on a plain line beneath the roof.

A sill is the sloped ledge directly below a window. We pitch the top of the sill rather than making the top flat.

A wall cap forms the finished top of a freestanding or perimeter wall. We can install the same type of cap on a block perimeter wall as well as on a wall that forms part of a house, and we pitch the top of the cap.

A quoin is one of the stacked blocks that builds up an outside corner. We set corner quoins in alternating long and short lengths, giving the corner the appearance of blocks laid into it.

Arches, Columns and Corbels

Arches, column wraps and corbels change the shape of a wall around openings, posts and roof edges rather than adding only a flat border.

An arch surround is a shaped border that follows the curved top of a window, entry or garage opening. We shape the arch curve to fit your opening.

A column wrap is a shaped shell around a post that already supports the building. The wrap may be half-round, with a curved face, or square, and we size either form to the post inside it.

A corbel is a shaped bracket installed beneath an eave, the roof edge that extends beyond the wall, or beneath the visible end of a beam. Any foam-core arch surround, column wrap or corbel carries no building weight. The existing support inside a column or above an opening continues to carry the building, while the decorative shape changes its finished appearance.

Door Surrounds, Eyebrow Hoods and Openings Built for Iron Grilles

Opening details place a defined border or projecting shape around an entry, window, garage or courtyard opening.

A door surround is the framed border built outward around an entry. We scale its width to your entry and the wall around it, and we can repeat the same surround pattern at garage and courtyard openings.

An eyebrow hood is a shallow curved shelf above a window. The phrase eyebrow window names the window, while eyebrow hood names the separate trim piece above it.

We plan openings for an iron grille, gate or window guard with the separate trade that supplies the metalwork. The ironwork specialist places the anchors, the metal fastening points that hold the iron grille or gate to the opening, before we coat the surrounding detail. We form the decorative stucco around those fixed anchor points.

Dentils, Fluted Moldings and Horizontal Wall Bands

Repeating ornament creates a larger pattern from many small or shallow shapes.

A dentil is one of the small blocks repeated in an even row beneath a cornice. Each block is modest in size, but the entire row depends on consistent spacing from one dentil to the next.

A fluted molding is a type of exterior stucco molding cut with parallel grooves along its face. The repeated grooves create the pattern within the molding, while repeated lengths can carry the same pattern across a larger section of wall.

Across your wall, a horizontal wall band is a raised strip that runs from one side of the wall face to another. We align the wall band with the tops and sills of nearby windows so the band maintains a consistent position as it crosses the wall.

We space dentils and other repeated units from a set-out line, a straight guide marked on the wall, rather than placing each piece independently. At a corner or opening, each straight run ends and a new run begins on the next section of wall.

Foam Core, Coating, and What Holds Up Outside

A coated foam trim shape is a decorative stucco detail set on the outside of a wall that the layers underneath have already weatherproofed. It does not serve as an insulated cladding system; its purpose is to add a defined profile to the completed exterior. We form and finish stucco architectural foam at a bench away from the building, establishing the full outline before the piece reaches the wall. The foam core establishes that outline, while the coating becomes the surface you see.

What the Core Is Made Of

The foam core inside these profiles is expanded polystyrene, usually shortened to EPS, a molded rigid foam. Density describes how much a fixed volume of foam weighs.

ASTM C578 is the material standard that sets the minimum density for each EPS board grade: Type I must be at least 0.90 pounds per cubic foot, and Type II must be at least 1.35 pounds per cubic foot. The greater density gives Type II more resistance to compression, which matters where a profile needs a firmer core. Type II is the grade specified for one-coat stucco systems, which use one main cement-based stucco layer before the final surface. For a profile on your property, its size and location govern the grade we specify rather than one grade being assumed for every shape.

Different profile forms require different cutting guides. Hot-wire cutting passes a heated wire through the foam to form straight lengths. For curves and repeated shapes, a fixed pattern called a template guides each cut to the required outline. The cut EPS foam core gives the trim its shape, and we cover that surface with reinforcing mesh, a base coat, and the textured finish you see.

Building codes apply pass-or-fail surface-burning limits to foam plastic through ASTM E84 and UL 723. These test methods measure how far flame travels across a material’s surface and record the smoke produced during the test. A board with a flame-spread index of 25 or less and a smoke-developed index of 450 or less has passed the code’s surface-burning limits for use within an approved exterior wall assembly.

The Coating That Makes It a Wall Surface

The coated foam assembly gives the EPS profile its exterior surface through three covering layers. Fiberglass reinforcing mesh follows the cut shape, and we overlap adjoining pieces of mesh so the reinforced layer continues across each seam. A polymer-modified base coat, a cement coating formulated to flex slightly, covers the mesh. A finish coat over the base coat supplies the visible texture and is matched to the texture around the trim.

Texture affects the shape of the profile’s small edges as well as its appearance. A heavy lace or dash texture creates a pronounced raised pattern that rounds those edges, while a smoother finish keeps the edges more sharply defined.

We must cover them with an approved exterior wall covering, a code-accepted assembly that forms the exposed outside surface. The ICC-ES evaluation report also prohibits using the boards as a nailing base, meaning a surface that holds fasteners for another item. In a coated foam profile, the approved mesh, base coat, and finish coat supply the required exterior covering.

Foam, GFRC, Precast and Cast Stone: Picking the Body for a Profile

For decorative stucco & architectural details, an architectural profile can be made from four material bodies, the main materials that give the profile its substance: a coated EPS shape, GFRC, precast concrete or cast stone. Matching a body to an existing structure begins with weight. Because coated EPS is the only choice light enough to add to a finished house without changing the framing or other parts that hold the house up, we recommend it for your finished house.

Material choice also affects timing, cost and edge quality. In general, cost and lead time increase from coated EPS to GFRC, then to precast concrete and cast stone. The three concrete-based bodies are heavier, but they can form a crisper arris, the visible edge where two faces of a profile meet.

GFRC: Thin-Shell Concrete for a Sharp Profile

GFRC, or glass fiber reinforced concrete, is a concrete shell strengthened with glass fibers. The fibers do the reinforcing job that steel bar does in ordinary concrete, which allows the shell to stay thin. A manufacturer casts each piece in a mold at a plant from project drawings, so it must be ordered weeks before installation rather than shaped at the building.

We specify the GFRC piece to PCI MNL 128 and coordinate it with the manufacturer and your building, so its anchors and joints account for the weight and movement of the piece on your building. The finished profile supports its own weight and resists wind, but it cannot hold up another part of the building. You would pay its higher cost and allow the longer lead time when the design requires a crisp concrete arris without the weight of a solid concrete unit.

Precast Concrete and Cast Stone

Precast concrete consists of solid concrete units formed in a plant. Cast stone is a distinct type of precast unit made and finished to resemble stone cut from a larger block. Both materials are heavy, so each anchor must be sized for the unit’s weight, and the framing behind the wall may also need changes. Precast concrete and cast stone are the only bodies in this comparison that can be designed as structural units, meaning pieces that support another part of the building. We specify one when your detail must carry a load or match existing masonry, the stone or concrete work already on the building.

Matching Architectural Detail to the Style Your House Already Has

Architectural detail is exterior ornament that shapes or emphasizes doors, windows, corners, and roof edges. Every facade, meaning an outside face of a house, already has recurring shapes, proportions, and locations for detail. Designers often call this set of features the facade vocabulary. Reading a house’s style means identifying that vocabulary before selecting another piece. A deep, layered cornice may fit a facade with substantial details around its openings and roofline, but the same cornice can appear unrelated on a flat facade with sharp edges and little ornament.

Ornate and restrained facades differ in both the number of pieces and their depth. We choose the projection with you to suit the house, from about 2 inches on restrained facades to as much as 12 inches on heavily detailed ones. For your house, the existing facade provides the basis for choosing several prominent pieces, one shallow band, or no added ornament.

Spanish Colonial Revival

Spanish Colonial Revival commonly uses numerous, strongly shaped details, but it concentrates them around openings and rooflines instead of distributing them across every flat wall. Entry details include a heavy door surround, an arch with a curved top, and openings framed for wrought-iron grilles or gates, which are barriers made from patterned metal bars. Courtyard walls may repeat the arch, while bracket-shaped corbel blocks and wall caps add depth near the top of the facade.

Eyebrow hoods can repeat the curves used elsewhere on the facade. If your facade already concentrates such features at entries, courtyard walls, windows, and roof edges, new detail can follow the same arrangement rather than fill every open wall.

Pueblo Revival, Mediterranean and Contemporary Desert Homes

Several facade families found around Washington and St. George use less ornament, or place it differently, than Spanish Colonial Revival. They include Pueblo Revival, Mediterranean and Tuscan designs, and contemporary desert homes. A parapet is the short wall that continues above the edge of a flat roof. Pueblo Revival parapets commonly have rounded edges, and the surrounding walls usually receive little applied ornament.

Mediterranean and Tuscan facades use heavier cornices, wall caps, and corner quoins. Contemporary desert homes instead rely on broad flat wall areas and sharp edges, so applied ornament is sparse or absent. On your property, matching one of the restrained facades may mean using a single horizontal wall band at the parapet line rather than a complete set of projecting details.