Should I "parge" a concrete foundation wall exterior?

mark2741

I bought a house last Summer that was built in 1959. The house has vinyl siding. The vinyl siding ends about 3 or 4 feet above the ground on one side of the house, and the conrete (poured) foundation is visible. It's in great shape - no cracks or any wierd discoloration. It's just plain ole concrete.

The home inspector that inspected the house before purchase told me that it's fine as is but if it were his house he would 'parge' it to make it look nice.

I did some research and it appears that parging is pretty easy to do, but I fail to see how it could make the exterior concrete look any better as it's just a dull sand mixture : ( Is it meant to simply be a base for painting over top of?

A neighbor across the street from me has a similar house and his exposed foundation appears to be stucco'd and looks very nice. I'm just assuming that it is stucco but perhaps it's parging that has been colored/painted?

I'd love to have something similar but I can't afford to have a contractor stucco it.

itsreallyconc

if you want real good parging that lasts, you could try for something like this - expanded wire mesh, sand, cement, water, & hybrid polymers,,, mtls are very forgiving these days because so many are ignorant of the skills & talent required,,, note casper [ homeowner's son's rqst ],,, if you parge using white cement & incorporate color into the mix, you won't have to paint - then scrape & paint again in a few years - then repeat in a few more years

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if you hear it from a guy in the apron store, be VERY suspicious the mtl/method will work,,, when it time to build something together, they won't answer phones NOR help
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