Thank you for the reply's. We were leaning on replacement of the cracked blocks. They are everywhere. We puled the permits ourselves for all the work done here and I can not recall ever getting one for the footers for the foundation. may even call the county to double check. If the crew that did this was that bad a patch job is not going to last. Thanks Rory

Ideally, you want the caulk to fill the crack and that is it. You do not want the caulk overfilling the crack. The caulk and the stucco are two different surfaces and painting over this with shiny paint is only going to highlight the problem. I would say going over it with some stucco type texture would be the only real way to fix it, but this could also make it worse if you don't know what you are doing.

All of the cracking should have happened in the curing process of the brown coat. Ther use to be a perscribed drying time mandated between coats as well as a min. of 17 days from application of the scratch coat to application of the color coat. If you contractor did not allow the brown coat to dry for at least 7 days and if it was not sprayed with water at least twice a day, slow the evaporation process, and any cracks that appeared, filled, prior to the application of the color coat then call the contractor back.

Many thanks for all the quick responses. It looks like I have a much bigger problem than I thought :( - I don't know how to response to each of you so I will response to all here. Jellytoast: Yes it was the only opinion and estimate because so far I contacted only one contractor who was referred by a friend. I really do not know who would do this kind of job to contact. Snookums2: Greatly appreciated for what you said. JDS: We live in Northern Virginia. We are the original owner and we have been here almost 27 years. I never know that caulking is required for this. I do not see any caulking as these cast stones were set just like any other brick around them. From what you said it sounds like these cast stones were cracked because the water get into them. From what I can see - these cast stones are sound (in relative term!) - not falling apart - and so far do not pose any structural problems. I think they are sound enough to be patched and then covered but with what material? Stucco is the only thing I know and as Snookums has said "If the underlying substrate material is cracking/expanding, the stucco over it will crack too.". So If stucco is the only choice I have - Do you think that stucco will be OK if we caulk and maintain? How often do you re-caulk though? I never know why these cast stones are cracked and now I know why - it is because of the water getting into them !!! I wish we had not done this! We paid extra to get these cast stones look. The original plan was all bricks! Joseph Corlett, LLC: I'm sure he meant "stucco" since he plans to stop by one day soon to "sample" the stucco on the bottom stone (behind the big pine tree) to see if it would work out. But now with all the knowledge I just learnt from you all I will tell him to hold off on this. Many many thanks for all your help. I do hope I will get a solution for this.