While the service life of stucco can’t be quantified as a specific number of years, properly applied and maintained portland cement plaster, or stucco, is as durable as any commonly used cladding material. Its hard surface resists abrasion and can take a lot of physical abuse. It stands up to all sorts of climates, from cold to hot and wet to dry. Many homes built in the early 1900s have had very little maintenance and remain in good shape today.

Stucco can be painted. Portland cement-based paints are very compatible with stucco because they are made of the same material. These paints should be scrubbed into the surface and fully cured. Alternatively, you could consider a colored stucco finish. These finish coats are often made with white cement and pigments, providing the widest range of colors. Premixed materials are color matched from batch to batch and are most consistent.

A fog coat is a light application of a cement-based slurry, the same proportions of cement, lime (if any), and water as used in the original application minus the sand, used to even out a surface’s appearance. It is typically sprayed or rolled onto the surface, similar to painting with a cement-based paint. Fog coating improves the look of stucco without changing its ability to transmit moisture vapor.

There are many types of hydraulic cements that can be used as a binder for stucco, or portland cement plaster. The cement standards used in the United States most often are from the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM).

A hydraulic cement is one that sets and hardens when mixed with water. Cement, along with sand and water, are the basic ingredients of a plaster mix. The following materials are candidate binders for stucco:

• Portland Cement, ASTM C150

• Blended Cement, ASTM C595

• Hydraulic Cement, ASTM C1157

• Masonry Cement, ASTM C91

• Plastic Cement/Stucco Cement, ASTM C1328 (primarily available in the west and southwest United States)

EIFS was developed in Germany and excellent at insulating masonry walls. EIFS is a foam attached to a substrate with a lamina, consisting of a fiberglass mesh encased in a polymer-enriched cement, being applied to the foam. An acrylic finish coat is applied for final decoration. The system has a thin, strong and flexible coating over foam that resembles stucco.

These are terms associated with one-coat and three-coat stucco systems They are described as hard coat systems because the base coats used for these wall assemblies are formulated with portland cement as the ‘backbone’ of the assembly.