Full Exterior Coating of a Two-Story Wood and Stucco Home

By the time we got to this two-story home, the paint was not just tired, it had given up. Whole sections of the upper board-and-batten and lap siding had peeled back to raw wood, the stucco was chalky and cracked, and one wall carried yellow and dark staining where moisture had been sitting. You can see it in the before shot of the front: the siding above the garage is more bare wood than paint.

This is the point where a quick coat of color would have been a waste of money. Paint over failing paint fails again, usually within a season or two. So we did not start with color. We started with removal.

The crew worked the whole exterior down to a stable surface. Failing paint came off the wood until we reached material that would actually hold a bond, which on the gable ends and upper siding meant taking it all the way to bare wood. Cracks and open seams in the stucco were patched. Along the base of the walls, where the old coating had worn thin at the dirt line, we parged a fresh band so the wall is sealed where it meets the soil.

The result reads as one clean, deliberate exterior instead of a patchwork. The body sits in a warm gray, the shingle and board accents in a blue-gray that gives the upper story depth, and the trim, fascia, and eaves in a crisp off-white. Even the rear elevation with the French doors, the part most companies treat as an afterthought, got the full treatment.