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I have never figured out why they don't do the same thing in the US..why
PAINT ( and then paint again, and again) when you don't have to ? A ten
year old (or 20) stucco house up here looks the same as when it was
built..no fading, no maintenance on the colored surface. Good luck with your
job.




Stucco in Florida is almost universally stucco on concrete block and
always painted. There has been a
great deal of building here since I arrived 10 years ago, and I don't
recall any frame construction being
done. That said, latex semi-gloss paint is the paint of choice - mainly
because a flat paint would grow
more mold/mildew. It also needs a moisture barrier, but latex "breaths"
more than oil, allowing the
inherent moisture of concrete to get out. But the main issue, I assume,
would be the growth of mildew
on bare surface.

When our condo was painted, the previous paint job was an extremely poor
one, due to NO prep.
It was mildewy, peeling in large sheets and with mildew under the
paint. When we obtained
estimates, the first was for "elastomaeric" paint, two coats, for
$27,000! Whew, we are only
eight units. Got some more bids, and had the good fortune to find a
contractor who did mainly
"commercial" work - condos and shopping centers. $6,000, two weeks of
prep, one coat of
primer and one coat of acryllic latex paint, in 2001, got us a great
paint job.

The first estimate for elastomeric was advised due to many fine cracks
in the stucco. The actual
work done used a brushable caulk which covered the cracks, does not show
through the paint
and so far has held just fine. I haven't paid much attention to
elastomeric paint and what quality
improvement it might render, but the first quote was pretty scary.

As for spraying, the only sprayer I've used is a tiny Preval sprayer,
with alkyd paint and acryllic
for different projects. Both types of paint have a recommended additive
for spraying, and a
good paint store can tell you what to use. I would not use water. The
stuff I used made the
paint very sprayable but not drippy or thin.

Good luck.