Painting tinted stucco

slug

Our house is tinted stucco, never been painted yet... We would like to paint it. Does have to be primed? We plan to use Kelly Moore paints...any suggestions?

Nestor_Kelebay

No, stucco is rough enough that any paint will stick well to it. You shouldn't need to prime first.

I wouldn't use an ordinary paint, tho.

I would use a "Masonary Paint".

Masonary paints are latex paints that allow any moisture inside the wall to evaporate through the paint, but prevent rain water from getting into the wall through the paint.

The way they can do this is that if you imagine a latex paint resin (properly called a "polymer colloid") to be a long metal wire scrunched up into a ball, then there will be a "normal" average distribution of distances between parts of the same wire in that scrunched up ball. In some places, the wires will be very close and in others the wires will be further apart, and the distribution of those gaps will fall into a "normal" distribution.

Masonary paints have resins where those gaps are larger than the diameter of a single H2O molecule, but smaller than the average distance between H2O molecules in liquid water. So, individual H2O molecules can pass through the masonary paint relatively easily, but liquid water cannot.

Using a masonary paint will allow any moisture that collects as frost in your wall over the winter to evaporate out through the paint.

But, you're dancing with the devil here. If the next homeowner decides to paint over your masonary paint with an exterior oil based paint, then he'll seal the wall and prevent moisture from getting in or out, and that could cause moisture to accumulate inside the wall. And, that in turn, could result in mold and mildew problems inside the walls too.

It might be best to leave the wall as bare stucco, or cover it with a different colour of stucco.

mark942

Hi Slug
I know Kelly Moore paints. Ask them about their Elastomeric latex,I have used their Elasomeric latex on many Stucco homes in the past with great results.Ask the Rep about application practices as they have a few that need to be adhered to. Good Luck to you.

__________________

Nestor_Kelebay

Mark:

I agree that elastomeric coatings make for great exterior paints, but normally you use an elastomeric coating to bridge cracks in the exterior of masonary walls so that water doesn't get in. (and subsequently freeze to crack that masonary)

Would it still be advantageous to use an elastomeric coating if his house's stucco isn't cracked?

http://www.naturalhandyman.com/iip/i...ericpaint.html