If I was faced with stamping a design on a shotcrete wall I would have similar concerns.  From experience, I know that stopping the nozzleman slows down the job which can increase cost.

Posted By toddm on 01 Feb 2012 05:45 PM
In defense of stucco subs everywhere, a half inch of traditional stucco on your house would weigh 15 tons dry. The stucco guy is applying it wet. With a trowel. The promise of scips is moving interior and exterior finish work into the factory.

Still missing facts on the AAC. Panels typically are hung on framework like a curtain wall. Siding essentially. Depending on how the structure is designed you could be looking at a conventional build inside.

Wondering how the SCIP process would be more efficient in a factory.  shotcrete both sides and have chases for interior wiring?  Or perhaps shotcreting the outside only.  I'd think you'd have to leave the edges undone and do them in the field to try and achieve the monolithic benefits.  You'd have higher transportation and erection cost w/ heavier panels offsetting onsite shotcrete costs.

I think the beauty of it is onsite application of the shotcrete and finish work.

My point is quality, and I should say upfront I have never seen a SCIP house.
That said, my stucco contractor owns a hopper gun and uses it on commercial projects. He told me he never uses it on residential. After he finished my house, with two colors and two textures, I understood why. Two men in particular, glen miller outside and bill warthen inside are artisans if not artists. The exception on my house is small area of hardie panel stamped in a similar texture. It is close. In a factory setting SCIP could come close too.

To be clear, you could find your own artisans to finish a scip house, but then you would be skipping steps rather than eliminating trades. My stucco guy explained that you can't leave mud in the line when you stop spraying, which means your finishers must keep up or everyone stands around while the gunner futzes. If you could do a quality job with a gun rather than a trowel I think you'd see houses being finished that way. That's not the case around here.

Posted By toddm on 02 Feb 2012 01:49 PM
To be clear, you could find your own artisans to finish a scip house, but then you would be skipping steps rather than eliminating trades. My stucco guy explained that you can't leave mud in the line when you stop spraying, which means your finishers must keep up or everyone stands around while the gunner futzes. If you could do a quality job with a gun rather than a trowel I think you'd see houses being finished that way. That's not the case around here.

So if I read this right, with SCIP if you don't have the right tradesmen/finishers, you could end up with one ugly or poorly done finish. Which then you are stuck with it, as you can't go back and fix cured shotcrete.

I know that with stucco, if you ever need to go back and repair something, it NEVER looks the same and you can always tell where they refinished it.

As with most building tasks, one should look at previous jobs to verify quality.

Like Alton says, scope out prior work. Then insist in writing that if the finish isn't good as the contractor's work on house X, then he fixes the problem with an entire, second finish coat. You'd still be a coat ahead, because the gun has done scratch coat and brown coat in one pass. And you'd still get less than I did for $4.50/sf; texturing is a fourth coat in conventional stucco.

For all the time saving innovations under a house's skin -- plywood, trusses, pex, pvc -- it is very difficult to remove time from onsite finish work without also removing quality.

Wouldnt nearly every pool crew doing gunite/shotcrete be experienced enough to do a good job? Or does the shotcrete panels require a more specialized crew?

Pools and supermarket sidewalls have far fewer openings corners and ornamental elements than houses. Anyhoo it is the last coat where you see how good someone like glen miller is. Never happens on a SCIP house unless you go looking for him.