there are several stucco systems available today. a couple of the more popular are EIFS type system and a traditional 3 coat. i think the first thing you need to explain is how your home will be constructed? A home that was constructed using standard stick framing and OSB seathing would be pretty a traditional method. if that is the case then you can more than likley use either system i listed above. both will require the application of craft paper or tar paper etc to create a barrier between the finish coat and the wood structure of the home. Todays stucco typically has an acrylic topcoat as the final finish, this will have the pigment and sand included to give your stucco the trowl finish you choose. IMHO in my climate (denver co) i do not like traditional 3 coat stucco finishes. the 3 coat systems dry and crack out over time, even with the use of control joints. if i had to use stucco in my climate i would use a EIFS system with the proper drainage protection between the foam and the home. EIFS got a bad rap in the begining because they thought it was a barrier type finish and never anticipated the leaks around window frames etc.

If they are hairline cracks in stucco over wood and metal lath, it comes with the territory. I wouldn't do anything about it in that case.

Pretty nearly impossible to accomplish an actual repair to splits (I take it you mean the panels) without disassembling. To get any glue to hold, the surfaces have to mate up closely and be clean. Hopefully these aren't old cracks that are full of paint, caulk and dirt. I have sometimes had success by striking the "raise" molding of the panel with a hammer and block of wood to free up the halves of the panels from their plowed slots in the sticking of the door. This allows the gap to be widened temporarily while I clean out the debris. Then the panels are brought together. I lay the door flat and apply tape to the underside of the crack, to prevent the glue from running out. If need be, small blocks for clamps can be hot-glued to the surface along either edge. I use epoxy for these repairs. Try not to glue a panel into the frame; stop the glue short of the ends. When the glue is cured, the excess can be scraped and sanded off. If you mean surface checks in the sticking of the door, then these are seasonal and may close on their own in summer. At that point, having the door fully sealed will prevent the from opening up every winter. Casey

while I’d prefer to keep the plaster, it bulges in some areas and creates snag points on the walls and there Are a lot of patches that just weren’t done properly, so replacing it with Sheetrock would allow me to fix it all at once and in terms of the bathroom I’m going to build in, it will also allow me to open the walls to allow the plumbing and electrical to be run faster(and cheaper). The Walls and ceilings all over the house are textured and some rooms have already been converted to Sheetrock and they textured those to match the plaster(poorly). When I did make some holes in the walls for things like new outlets, I didn’t find any paper under the texturing layer, just solid plaster. Seriously, the house has probably been worked on by 5 different contractors and none of them even tried to match the work of the others. The drywall work was sloppy and they used too much joint compound in some areas, none in others. ill try to post some pictures on my Profile under a new project for more details and so you can see what I’m talking about. The house is sitting on a cement foundation. Not block. I just wasn’t sure if cement could be covered and not have it look like I’m trying to hide something. I haven’t seen any code against it in the UBC or in my local city/county codes.