Ok so need some TexAgs help to answer some basic questions before my GC or stucco company try to lie to me.

Background - Brand new home in DFW with stucco applied in late 2021, probably Nov/Dec. Typical wood frame house with 95% stucco exterior and some stone. We are coming up on our 1 year in April and the outside stucco is junk. We have vertical and horizontal cracks on almost every exterior wall ranging from inches to 3+ft long. Cracks are everywhere on the walls, low high, near corners, middle of wall, I mean everywhere. But we have no cracks inside in sheet rock which makes me think this isn't from settling. So questions I have:

1. Is this normal? Cracks are pretty thin and don't appear to be letting water through but I'm not sure
2. What's the best way to repair these cracks?
3. Should I demand the entire wall be destroyed and redone vs patching?
4. How do I prevent more cracks from happening?
5. Can stucco be repainted because they have fixed a couple of spots already and it looks terrible. They can't match the color.

Hairline cracks in a few locations are pretty normal. Usually, you can't see them from any distance and trying to fix them makes the problem worse. The time of year should have minimized them and it shouldn't be a tremendous number.

PIctures would help.

This is unfortunately what stucco does. It's cracked now because it's cold. Once it gets hot again the cracks will mostly disappear as the stucco expands again.

Your best bet is to demand a new coat of elastomeric paint everywhere to be applied while its cold. Then once it gets hot again you'll have inverse cracks as the stucco expands and pushes the elastomeric paint out of the void.

I know this probably sounds crazy if you're not familiar with stucco.

Also to note that the stucco should have expansion joints in regular intervals. If it doesn't that would definitely be cause for a re-do. My post above assumes they're there and we're just talking about hairline cracks here.

So I do not think there are any expansion groovers but let me try to get some pictures. And some of the cracks are hairline and some are a bit more.

Crack 1
Crack 2
Crack 3
Crack 4

I absolutely hate posting pictures on this site. I've never been able to do it.

Those cracks look pretty normal to me. And I see an expansion joint in the third pic.

I'm no expert though, just a fellow stucco owner. Hopefully someone in the industry can give you some feedback here.

From your pictures it looks like there are some control joints (center of the wall on image 3). Those should be at the corners of windows doors etc and at fairly regular intervals like 10-15'. You stucco looks like it is a troweled on textured top coat with integral color. If it was painted with elastomeric afterwards all or most of those cracks would not be visible as the paint would expand and contract concealing them.

Yeah that's the only control joint I can find. Nothing near any windows and stuff.

So based on reading looks like best option is to caulk the cracks and paint over it I guess? I'm afraid they will have to paint the whole house to get everything to match

Your next visitor should be an architect-referred, 5-star rated, BBB-approved stucco family of several generations.
Here you will find what you need after an on-site, close-up inspection with experience that "sees" deep inside the stucco you were sold. Those suspect at fault should not be present but if you're going law on them, then the lawyer needs to be there to take notes.

In Aggieland, the real-deal 3-part stucco costs more than masonry in order to be well done. The expansion joists occur every 15ft each way on center and at every fenestration corner is best. Of course our foundation supporting soils may move more than yours - if this becomes a concern anew.

There are many other cheaper forms of stucco and you might find these applied to spec.houses and even strip centers. Some of these hold up very well.

Unaware of what your Contract statute-of-limitations are, cannot advise you on how aggressive to be to protect any future solutions to what might be a growing problem. Your crack photos are consistent with our locale, so I have no worries about these in near future. I see no real data as to expansion joint types nor locations, so you may refer to what's posted above or Google such more apropos to your location.

Indeed there are sealants and sealers a true stucco artist can prescribe & even apply for you if needed. NOT a DIY, IMHO.

My two cents:

I agree that this looks like an integrally-colored stucco product, and an elastomeric coating would mitigate cracking as it has "crack-bridging" properties. A compromise with your contractor may be having them paint stucco on the entire home. Redoing stucco would be much more costly for them/you. DO NOT allow them to try and match the color and only paint where the cracks are. It will never match and actually look worse. All stucco would need to be painted.

These cracks look relatively normal, It is generally an accepted flaw of the material. The control joints relieve stress on the stucco system and are particularly useful at doors and windows although they are often omitted in residential construction.

Since you're within your 1 year warranty, I would do a thorough examination (maybe even have a third party come look) and make sure there are no major cracks...wide enough for a penny to fit in.

The problem with bad, major cracks in stucco is the freeze-thaw cycle and the introduction of water into the stucco system. The water rusts the metal lath (if you have metal lath) and it expands and pops the stucco off. That allows more water infiltration and the cycle continues.

EDIT:

Here is a stucco repair procedure from Parex. This is labor intensive and costly. It also seems heavy-handed for your issue. I would expect your contractor to push back against completely redoing the stucco.

https://www.parex.com/docs/librariesprovider5/additional-product-literature/technical-bulletins/tb027---performing-stucco-repairs.pdf?Status=Master&sfvrsn=9eca3d90_3

Those look like hairline cracks that are perfectly normal.