# stucco patina questions



## billypatout (May 2, 2017)

Hi All

New to forum but have been lurking for a bit. Not sure if this is a specialty coating or a general question, so forgive if I'm in the wrong spot.

We own a painting company in New Orleans where we have a good amount of stucco houses. My customer just stucco'ed over brick and wanted to leave the cement natural/gray so it would develop a nice patina and age. he wanted the old historic look and figured that it would start to darken in about a year with some good direct sun. We did apply a clear coat of Siloxane PD for protection.

The historic preservation folks (it's big here in NOLA) said that in his particular part of town, the stucco houses would be more likely to have been painted. He is willing to paint the stucco but really wanted a minimal painting, almost a tint so that it would still patina and age. He does not really want a fresh paint coat. 

Ideally, I would have thought that we could have added a tint to the stucco to give it some color and that would age nicely and we could have called it a day, however, since the stucco has been on for about 8 months now, it's obviously too late for that.

My question: _What would be a good, minimal way to paint the smooth stucco to where it will still age and patina up nicely?_

I am wondering if we could just just do one coat of latex with no primer?? would oil base be better?

See the pictures below of the current house.

I will also attach an example of a large French Quarter building which was what he was going for in the first place. Again, old and crusty is what he was going for.

Any thoughts ideas?

Thanks for the help
(pics below)

Billy 
Patout painters

My client's house:

http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h83/billypatout/R2.jpg

______

An old French Qtr house with patina (the original goal):

http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h83/billypatout/fq.jpg


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## billypatout (May 2, 2017)

In case the photos didn't attach. trying to embed them, not just link them. Please forgive if I did it wrong.


Client's house that needs a minimal coat that will be "painted" but will still age:










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an old crusty patina like this was what he had in mind originally:


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## SunHouseProperties (Feb 19, 2015)

I would think blotching the walls with water then getting a stain , maybe semi transparent. with a broom dip the broom into the stain and drag it top to bottom and allow the water to disperse the stain. I think to try on a plywood sheet with stucco and blotch water at the bottom then drag a brush with stain onto the stucco toward bottom soaked stucco. ,,,, i have never done this before , but i should try. the stain will look grainy from the broom and the stain with be far weaker and fail where the water is giving you that aged look... i would try this but im busy painting right now.


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## kmp (Jan 30, 2011)

The patina you show in the old house picture is more than likely efflorescence,which is a sigh of deterioration and failure, not a good looking patina. Gray stucco will be gray stucco forever, unless it turns green from mold from all the humidity down there. To me it it will look unfinished till it's painted.


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## woodcoyote (Dec 30, 2012)

This has all the ingredients for a mess. 

First and foremost, don't ever apply a Siloxane sealant to stucco. There's a 50/50 or 70/30 chance that it'll come back and bite whoever paints or attempts to paint the home.

If the water is beading up on the stucco because of the Siloxane you'll have a very hard time painting it. Not only will it require special primers, there's a real possibility of having to re-stucco the house in order to paint it. In which case it's better to not even paint because you have a fresh coat of stucco on it, somewhat pointless. 

Now for the look, it's hard to see close up detail or even a bigger picture of the look your client is after, but around here we'd call that pretty run down and in need of re-doing. Basically a grunge look. 

There are signs of efflorescence and possibly staining from water stains or possibly even some grey coat coming through, somewhat hard to tell.

If you attempt to use a stain, use a concrete penetrating stain instead of a stain you would use for wood. The penetrating concrete stains are designed for exterior use and won't need to be top-coated. So you'll avoid a headache there. But because of the porous nature of stucco, you'll have a very hard time controlling it's absorption. 

If you want a look like this, there are several options. One is to apply the stucco and then come back with a stain while the stucco is still wet and work it in. Variance is a local company that was recently acquired by Parex USA one of the largest stucco manufacturers. They have information on their website about it. But it has to be applied prior to the stucco drying out. 

The second option would be a faux finish of some kind with paints or stains, again difficult and if the wrong product is used it would have to be top coated or the pigments will fade out or product could also delaminate. 

Another option would be to two-tone the stucco. Probably with a white base, skip troweled or cat faced followed by a grey top coat as a skim coat, then waiting for the grey to firm up and then scrape to expose parts of the white. 


At the end of the day, whatever option you select is going to be very time consuming and very expensive. 

Hope that 2 cents helps out. Good luck.


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