The Money Mustache Community
Learning, Sharing, and Teaching => Do it Yourself Discussion! => Topic started by: onemorebike on July 19, 2016, 09:28:14 AM
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I have an old friend who owns a painting company. Our house is stucco, and in dire need of a facelift. Eschewing the expensive re-stuccoing, he has offered to paint our stucco at a little over cost. I'm reading conflicting viewpoints on using paint on stucco, on the other hand, I'm reading about paints that are supposed to be great for putting on stucco.
Can anyone shed some light on this conflicting advice?
Thanks in advance,
onemorebike
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As a southern California native, I've only ever lived in stucco houses. Around here painting is definitely the norm and any good exterior paint should do the job. I'd only consider re-stuccoing if there was actual damage to the stucco.
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Repainting stucco isn't a problem.
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Huh? As a fellow CA native (Hi lookilu!) and a person married to a painting contractor, I'm scratching my head over this comment. What the hell? Who told you that?
A word about re-stuccoing: patches NEVER match. If you replace windows, for example, unless you re-stucco the whole house, it's always going to show. And forget doing a wall but not the whole house. Yup, the whole house.
DH and I own several single family homes. We brake for open houses. DH can read a house like a book. I love listening and learning from the stories the houses tell if one knows how to read them.
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Make sure that the paint is appropriate. Stucco"breathes". The paint must be vapor permeable or any water/water vapor that gets behind it will migrate into your home. A vapor permeable paint let's the water out. Provided that you use the right paint, this should work fine.
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I highly recommend elastomeric paint. I've painted my stucco house myself with it. I buy good quality paint from Kelly Moore or Sherwin Williams. It seals up the cracks really well and helps block some of the heat transfer. I also live in CA and my house face East with no trees, almost all windows are in front and back so I get a ton of sun.
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If your stucco is the older cementitious type with bits of stone or glass embedded in the stucco, give the walls a good wash with a power washer first. This will knock off any loose bits that might come off after the paint job. Also, make sure to let it dry thoroughly before proceeding with the painting.