Re-colouring stucco

[Neil Bosdet]

My wife and I would like to change the colour of our house. It's a stucco finish, light grey. We'd like something darker and more earthy. I suggested I might paint it to a contractor a few years ago and he felt that I shouldn't. He suggested I should have a new "skim" coat of stucco applied over my current finish. His rationale was that stucco "breathes" and painting it would seal it. Do any of you have experience with this? I'd like some opinions. It's a large house and I can paint it myself for less than $1000. Resurfacing it with stucco would have to be done by pros and I imagine the cost would be $3000-$4000 +++?

Thanks,

Neil

[Roger Everett]

Neil:
I live in Florida, and 98% of houses here are stucco.. All painted in any color of rainbow, and in this sun, need painting about every 6-10 years, depending on color and fading. Unless the stucco has an anti-hydro liquid in the mix, it is porous, it rains and it soaks in water , which would lead to mold- mildew on the inside. The only exception I know of is one of the newer acrylic stucco's , which are a complete sealed system when done, and when they fade some you paint it.
Roger

[Joe Pelonio]

When we lived in CA I had a stucco house that was at the time 30 years old and an ugly color. I painted it and in doing some scraping noticed it had been 3 other colors before that. I also did some window replacements and put in a slider where a window had been and did the stucco work, an
in all cases used a 15 year exterior latex with no problem. I was told that it breathes better than oil based paint. When we sold & moved the paint was 7 years old and still looked great, better in fact than the wood trim.

[Frank Pellow]

My house is a mock tudor and was built 34 years ago. But, the bulder just used panels painted white, not stucco. About 25 years ago, I applied stucco over the panels to give the house a more authentic look. Since then, I have touched it up twice with oil-based flat white paint. The paint has stood up well.

[Mark Singer]

I would paint it. Do not use elastomeric paint....just a good quality house paint

[Vaughn McMillan]

My dad (the concrete engineer, among other things) always claimed that stucco shouldn't be painted, but I've lived in two houses (and seen many others) here in California that were painted stucco with no apparent ill effects.

- Vaughn

[Neil Bosdet]

I appreciate your comments. I feel the same way but I'd still like to understand why it's not recommended to paint stucco?

Neil