Stucco

Joewho

I've been working on a 4000 sq. ft. house, exterior, stucco, by myself.

It's really the first full stucco house I've done. Being from the midwest, not much stucco or I'd avoid it, or I'd do something small with a roller.

I've used sprayers on exteriors, but never on stucco. This looks like it was rolled or sprayed on and a knife dragged up and down on it. My first experience with Dunn/Edwards acricoat, "a stain, a paint, long color retention". Sounds too good to be true but supposed to be really good.

I hand scraped, primed and 2x the acricoat on wood fascia. Sprayed the stucco, but didn't thin as much as I could have. What I'm seeing are holidays where I would have had to spray from all 4 angles and put too much product on the wall. Just used a big brush, but next time I'm getting a few roughriders. http://paint-supplies.gillroys.com/P...H-s781794.html

Lots of popouts and they are killing me right now. Rented the sprayer and didn't want to tape/paper/plastic the whole residential house and leave it for 3/4 days. So, I just sprayed the body and am doing the popouts by hand.

Anyway, that's the basic background. I've inqired about stucco here and talked to a couple of painters along the way here. Everyone recommends using a stain or whatever acricoat is, out here, las vegas.
The bid was low. The customer is pushing me towards the basic quicky job. I'm just trying to survive the job. Van died a month ago, taking a bus 2 hrs. each way and working in this heat, not to mention looking stupid taking the bus.

Looks like the majority of stucco work, new and repaints are designed to last about 5 yrs. My goal is to get something on the stucco that holds it's color longer. Isn't there something I can use on stucco that will hold it's color or appear to hold the color. It is a desert but it's not the only place where the sun is harsh. I've used Sherwin/Williams Exterior Accents. http://www.paintdocs.com/webmsds/web...pe=MSDS&lang=E

I saw some burnt orange exterior accents on, a customers house, that was 7 yrs. old and looked great. But, I also found a spot where it was in the shade and got an idea of the fade rate. My questions are about laying paint on natural stucco. I think it needs to breath, and when spraying paint on stucco, it's easy to get too much on there. So it cracks/checks.
Also, even if I can get a paint to last longer than 5 yrs., when it's life ends, I think it will do a lot of peeling and need powerwashing.

I always like to do work that will last a long time and I think it can be done here.

Anyone know for sure about paint on stucco? Can you answer my questions?

My thinking is that natural stucco (chicken wire) needs to breath and I don't want to seal it up. Synthetic stucco (drivit) does not need to breath, it has vents built in.

This is what I'm worried about http://www.diychatroom.com/showthread.php?t=10747

mikenewman@fron

Hi, I am doing a natural stucco house right now in Moab Utah. I am using Matte Flex from Porter Paint. It works great and looks great.I thought about spray and back roll which would have been best but the trim was done last year and had to be kept clean. I am using a 1 1/4 lambs wool 9 in. and its slow but fast enough to turn 5k this week by myself. Good Luck. Also I wouldn't worry about fading in the desert it's going to happen. Just worry about adhesion and reasonable looks for 5 years. You'll be fine and pick up the repaeat in 5 yr.

Joewho

I did a stucco wall in someones yard by roller and brush, made good money on it. But, it's hard to come by customers who will pay for my time when they can just hire someone to spray it in a couple of hours.

On this job, I did the yard wall too, sprayed it and was done in about 3 hrs.

Your advice about the 5 yr. time is all I've heard out here. Guess I'll have to pioneer better work or learn the hard way.