What is the sun exposure?
Has the wall been misted with water 2 too 3 times a day since application?

Hi Snoonyb,

The weather has been around 65-70 F here and this wall faces the sun. Unfortunately my contractor did not tell me that it needs to be hydrated. I came to know about it after some research so started hydrating it only a week after it was applied. And it has started raining today, so it is getting hydrated but a bit late.

Had you stopped by before, is 20/20 hindsight.

Your contractor will tell you that they will be filled in with color coat, which is true.

However, if HY-EARLY cement was used the scratch and brown could have been doubled creating a monolithic application, the cracks will go all the way to the lath.

If they were separate applications, there is the potential for incomplete adhesion in the area of the crack.

I address this by gouging the cracks and filling with a caulking containing an aggregate, before the color coat is applied.

He used Quickrete plastic cement and plaster sand for both scratch and brown coats. They were done as two separate coats with a 1 week curing time in between.

If i go with caulking should i only fill the bigger cracks or should i fill the smaller ones (almost look line lines from a distance) ?

The solution to stucco hairline cracks is to use elastomeric paint. The paint needs to be rolled to force it into the cracks properly. You can spray it on and backroll. That's the best way. Make sure you do 2 full coats. A good quality, 100% acrylic elastomeric paint will fill cracks up to 1/16" wide, and the coating lasts for over 5 years without showing crack. Elastomeric is self-priming on new stucco, meaning you don't need to use a separate primer. It may be a good idea to add a little water to the first coat in order to help it absorb into the pores better.

For larger cracks wider than 1/16", use an elastomeric caulk. You may be able to find one with some texture added (like mentioned above) that will belnd in perfectly.

I have a house near the coast, in Pacifica, CA. The current paint was done by myself in 2006. 2 walls of my house were new stucco, done rather poorly by unlicensed guys off the street, and the other 2 walls were 50 year old stucco from the original construction. All the walls had severe cracks over the entire surface. Way worse than your photo. I carefully cleaned and prepped the larger cracks with elastomeric caulk, and applied 2 coats of KM-1128 Kel seal Elastomeric paint. 7 years later, it still looks fine. None of the cracks have opened through the surface. You can't even see where they used to be.