How to Paint Stucco

LESLIE: Now we’ve got Michelle from Colorado joining us here at The Money Pit with a painting question. Hi, Michelle. How can we help?

MICHELLE: Well, hi there. We bought a house that is a very light tan stucco and the people who owned it before didn’t clean out the gutters and the stucco is very stained fro water dripping down. We tried pressure washing it and that didn’t get rid of the stain. So we wondered if we could paint it and since stucco is so low maintenance my husband is very concerned that if we painted it then we’ve suddenly made a high-maintenance problem …

TOM: Yeah.

MICHELLE: … where we’re having to paint, you know, every five years or something.

TOM: Mm-hmm. Well, stucco generally does have to be painted to be maintained. I mean you could have colorant in the stucco itself. That was there when it was first applied. But you know, unless you wanted a natural concrete finish you will have to paint it.

MICHELLE: OK.

TOM: And so, if you’re going to do that, then we would recommend that you prime it. You want to use an oil-based primer on this, because that’s the best way to get this to adhere to the masonry, and then use a good quality latex topcoat above that. But if you do it right you probably are going to have to only paint this every eight to twelve years because the nice thing about masonry versus wood is because it doesn’t expand and contract the paint tends to last a lot longer.