- Location: Sewickley, PA
- Home: a 120-year-old, 2½-story stucco colonial with dormers, chimneys, its original slate roof, a rear Dryvit addition and a detached two-story garage
- Scope: stucco restoration and repaint, soffits, original wood windows, shutters, garage
- Timeline: July 20 – October 15, 2026
- Crew: two to three House Hues painters
What we found
This wasn’t a house that just needed fresh paint. Over large areas the coating had let go of the stucco entirely, and in places the failure went past the paint: the original finish coat of stucco was coming apart, and in some spots the scratch coat underneath had failed too. The rear walls, the soffits and the second-floor overhangs were the worst.
Painting over a surface like this only buys a season or two. New paint is only as good as what it’s stuck to, and here that was loose coating and crumbling stucco.
How we restored it
- Protection and staging. Landscaping, masonry, the brick walk and fixtures were covered. Scaffolding went up on the front, and the dormers and chimneys were reached from the roof.
- Remove what failed. Loose and delaminated coating came off by wet scraping and hand removal, using lead-safe, low-dust methods. Coating that was still firmly bonded stayed on the wall.
- Repair the stucco. Where the finish coat or the scratch coat beneath it had failed, we repaired the stucco itself before any coating went on.
- Seal with a bonding agent. Sika latex acrylic bonding agent went over the old paint and the repairs. It locks down the remaining old coating and gives the next coat the strongest possible bond.
- Fill the texture: two coats of PrimeRx. Scraped areas sit lower than the old coating around them. Two coats of Sherwin-Williams PrimeRx Peel Bonding Primer built those low spots up so the patched areas don’t show through as a pattern.
- Finish with Sherwin-Williams Duration Exterior, flat. A flat sheen hides the texture variation old stucco always has, and Duration is a thick, durable topcoat.
Working on a 120-year-old slate roof
The dormers and chimneys could only be reached from the roof, and the roof is the home’s original slate. Slate this old cracks under a careless step, and a broken slate on a roof like this is hard to match. Setting up on it took experienced roof staging, planned footing and constant care, so we could paint the dormers and chimneys and leave the slate exactly as we found it.
The rest of the house
- Soffits: the stucco overhangs got the same system as the walls.
- Windows: about a dozen original wood sashes were scraped, sanded, primed and painted. The newer aluminum windows were left alone.
- Shutters: sprayed for a smooth, even finish.
- Garage: the detached two-story garage got the same system, so it matches the house.
The result
The project turned out incredible. It was a true refresh of the home: the house reads as one clean, even surface again, from the front entry to the garage, with no patch marks showing through and nothing damaged on the roof.
Questions about stucco
Can you paint stucco that’s peeling?
Yes, but the failing coating has to come off first, and any stucco that has let go underneath has to be repaired. Paint over a failed layer comes off with it.
Why use a bonding agent and a primer?
They do different jobs. The bonding agent locks down the remaining old coating and the repairs, and gives the new system something solid to grip. The primer then builds up the scraped low spots so the finished wall looks even.
Why a flat finish on stucco?
Stucco has texture, and old stucco has repairs. Flat doesn’t reflect light the way satin does, so it hides that variation instead of highlighting it.
Can painters work on a slate roof?
Yes, but only with roof staging and footing planned around the slate. Walking on old slate the usual way breaks it.
Planning work on an older stucco home? See our exterior painting service or get in touch.
