Mortar finishing quality has a crucial impact on the appearance of a building. Based on the framework of quality costing, 26 high-rise housing projects are interviewed to identify quality prevention activities utilized in mortar finishing practices in Taiwan and their impacts. To clarify relative impact of each preventive activity, a model is built using a backward stepwise regression process. Statistics show that the average defect ratio of mortar finishing of 26 high- rise housing projects is 7.6%. In the regression model, thirteen preventive activities are identified to have significant impacts on reducing defect ratio for mortar finishing. Analytical results also indicate that current mortar spraying method could result in a higher defect ratio in mortar finishing.