Repairing and Painting Stucco

LESLIE: Susan in Tennessee needs help with a stucco project. What can we do for you?

SUSAN: Yes, Leslie.

LESLIE: Hi.

SUSAN: I have a 1920s Tudor cottage – brick and stucco – and we are (chuckles) scraping and trying to figure out what to use to patch and paint this stucco.

TOM: What kind of condition is the stucco in right now? Is it structurally intact, Susan?

SUSAN: Most of it is. It actually was built in 1920s, so it has some bits out.

TOM: (overlapping voices) That’s a great year.

SUSAN: But it’s in pretty good shape. It’s just that the old paint is kind of chipped up and I thought there must be something better.

TOM: (overlapping voices) Yeah. Well, if the stucco is [in structural] (ph) shape – and 1920, I would imagine it still is because that was a great year for this type of construction – what I would do is I would try to abrade off as much of the old paint as possible, wire-brush it; doing it the right way. There’s no easy way to do this. You know, it’s a lot of hard work but you don’t want to leave any loose paint on because you can’t put good paint over bad paint; it’s just going to peel.

What I would do is, after I got it as clean as possible, I would assess the condition of the structure. If there are any fine cracks, you want to caulk those with a paintable caulk and then I would prime the entire surface. I would take the time to prime it because whatever you have in terms of old paint, it’s going to neutralize that; it’s going to give you a good adhesion of the top color coat. So I would prime it and then I would use a good house paint over that.

Now if you do this right, and because it’s stucco and it’s not as organic as wood, either (ph) paint job can last you a good ten years.

SUSAN: Well, it only looks to have about three different colors under it. (chuckles) So it’s lasted a pretty good while.

TOM: (overlapping voices) Well, now you’re going to have a very consistent look. Yeah, right.

SUSAN: So we will approach it that way. (Leslie chuckles)

TOM: Alright, Susan. Good luck with that project. Thanks so much for calling us at 1-888-MONEY-PIT.