17 Types of Stucco (Various Finishes & Textures)

When you’re working on putting together a design scheme, nothing adds a little bit of texture like a coat (or three) of stucco. Stucco offers an impeccably exotic feel that helps your home appear elegant yet welcoming. The right types of stucco walls can turn your home into a desert paradise or a European villa, so how do you know which to choose?

There are two main types of stucco, traditional and synthetic, and nine common stucco finishes, including dash, float, and smooth. Other finishes are cat face, Spanish lace, Santa Barbara, worm, English, and lace and skip. Finish materials can be cement-based, acrylic, or synthetic; application styles are one-coat, three-coat, and EIFS (Exterior Insulation and Finish System).

Choosing which stucco to get stuck with can be a little rough. Thankfully, UpgradedHome has all the research you need to make your home’s coat worthwhile.

Synthetic stucco is also known as EIFS, the Exterior Insulation and Finishing System. The entire concept is to give a home’s exterior a stucco-like finish for a less expensive price tag. EIFS is a six-layered stucco-like finish that has a light build and is relatively easy to install compared to old-school stucco.

While it is less expensive, synthetic stucco isn’t very durable. In the past, synthetic stucco had a fairly bad reputation due to its tendency to get moldy. Synthetic stucco typically adheres to gypsum board or wood. If installers don’t put up the stucco correctly, it can let in moisture and lead to rot.

Additionally, this can attract termites, since they love a moist environment. So, there’s a potentially higher risk of termites making their way into the walls and feasting.

Dash is one of the most popular types of stucco finishes you’ll find on the market. It has a very gravelly look, with a strong, rough texture. Most people prefer to use it on home exteriors, especially if they want to have a modern home exterior. It looks great with all colors, and is fairly easy to install. In some parts of the country, it’s also known as “roughcast” stucco.

One cool thing about dash stucco is its traditional application method. The finishing layer is literally sprayed onto the home’s exterior!

A close cousin of dash stucco is float. Also known as sand stucco, this finish has an even and grainier feel than dash. The idea behind it is to give your home a sandy, floated look that looks pristine. Most homes use lighter colors for this stucco, and it remains popular as an exterior stucco pattern. This stucco is particularly popular among business exteriors due to its delicate appearance.

Float stucco has to be applied gently, by hand, with a float trowel. Otherwise, you won’t get the results you want. You can choose a coarse, medium, or fine type of sand finish for this option.

You might have seen stucco that is smooth in some parts, but contains patches of rough texture in others. This is known as “cat face” stucco, primarily because older versions would look like cats’ faces poking through the walls. While most people wouldn’t see this unless they were under the influence of certain hallucinogens, the name stuck for the most part.

Regionally, this is also known as Montalvo or California stucco. However, we’re just going to call it a cool interior stucco to use on your walls.

Spanish lace is an interesting, smooth-yet-not-smooth type of finish. The bumps are there, but they aren’t rough like dash or sand. After a certain level, all the bumps end up being a flat surface, leaving grooves underneath. These are also known as skip-trowel finishes or lace and skip finishes. If your home has faults, then adding Spanish lace can cover it up.

This is one of the few types of stucco that only requires two coats instead of three. With light layers, it looks like a cloudy lace, like the photo above. When heavily layered on, it looks like you literally applied lace to stone. It’s neat like that.

The Santa Barbara look is pretty popular in California, primarily because it comes in a wide range of colors. This is a semi-smooth finish that is made of ultra-fine grains of sand. This gives it a silky yet rugged look that’s perfectly Western. It’s suitable for both outdoor and indoor settings, too.

If you’re a fan of Santa Barbara stucco, you’re in for a treat. This can be easily obtained via both traditional and EIFS styles, which means it’s affordable at virtually any income level.

Oh, the velvety look of smooth stucco! This is a finish that is known for being ultrafine, and for having a feel that almost resembles velvet. In terms of visuals, you might notice some color differences that look like patches or even “tie-dye blots.” If you want to have an industrial look to your room, this polished concrete vibe will do wonderfully.

While it is wildly visually appealing, the truth is that it’s kind of a hard type of stucco to apply. This often requires the hand of an expert stucco installer. Since it can be difficult to install, the price of smooth stucco is high. Repairs, too, are pretty hard to do—especially if you’ve got cracks.

No, these don’t have creepy crawlies in the stucco. Worm stucco finishes are easily recognizable by their “streaky” appearance, with many lines throughout the wall’s surface. There are many different subgenres of worm finishes, including swirl and “putz” stripes. This is a good option for people who want to have a bold interior that has a more geometric look to it.

Worm stucco involves large aggregate pieces added to the stucco, giving it a stripey look that juts out. Sometimes, it’s even rubbed in by hand. This gives it the groovy indents that people enjoy. The issue with worm stucco is that you might have a hard time getting a smooth repair.

English stucco is one of the oldest forms of stucco still being used today, and it’s easy to spot. It’s a heavily brushed-on finish that looks like layered brush strokes when it’s complete. Sometimes, it will even have upward curls that you can feel branching off the stucco’s finish. This gives it a heavily painted look that works well with older buildings.

Because you can only do English stucco with traditional stucco, it can be a pretty pricey option. This, along with its antique appearance explains why you usually only see this on older buildings. The good news here is that it’s remarkably forgiving and can be a cinch to patch. So if you have it, then you definitely are in luck in terms of durability.

Lace and skip stucco is a very common, traditional texture. It’s great for hiding imperfections and is often used for both commercial and residential applications. Lace and skip comes in tons of variations that have subtle differences, but they’re applied using the same method.

You’ll see lace and skip stucco in fine, medium, and coarse patterns. This texture is applied using a base coat followed by the textured layer itself. In most cases, lace and skip is used with traditional stucco. However, it can be done in acrylic, too, although acrylic lace and skip has less depth.

In most cases, lace and skip is applied by hand. Another option is to spray it out and then flatten or knock it down using a trowel. The result is a very forgiving texture that can camouflage imperfections on the wall’s surface.

The third type of stucco finish material is synthetic, and this type is very similar to acrylic. Often, synthetic finishes are made from acrylic, but there are some differences. In most cases, synthetic finishes are used for EIFS systems because they help prevent water from entering the wall.

There are various aggregate sizes to choose from with a synthetic finish. Your choice of aggregate will affect the appearance and feel of the finished stucco. Generally, options include smooth, fine, medium, and coarse aggregates.

EIFS stands for Exterior Insulation and Finish System. From the outside, EIFS stucco looks just like a typical stucco installation. It usually has an acrylic finish, but it’s different from the traditional hard-coat system due to its inner layers.

The reason for this is that EIFS has multiple layers that form a complete wall system. This system has special properties, such as increased air barriers and improved protection from water and moisture.

The usual layers in EIFS stucco include a water and air barrier followed by adhesive base coat and foam. Next is a base coat embedded into fiberglass mesh. It’s optional to add a primer coat, and then all the layers are covered by the finish coat.

A basic EIFS assembly is a more affordable option, but the downside is that it doesn’t include a water barrier. Instead, the system is applied directly over the substrate. The basic assembly system typically includes the adhesive base coat, foam, a fiberglass mesh base coat, an optional primer, and a finish coat.

The other option when working with EIFS stucco is an EIFS assembly with a water management system. This variation of EIFS includes a moisture barrier applied on top of the substrate. This barrier is also called a drainage plane, and it can be applied as a fluid or paper.

Although an EIFS assembly with a water management system obviously works harder to keep out moisture, all types of EIFS have a finish coat designed for that purpose. EIFS assemblies with water management systems simply have an extra barrier.

Generally speaking, this isn’t something most people should worry about. Stucco siding is not exactly fragile by any means, and actually happens to be one of the best siding options. Most stuccos will last between 50 to 80 years with proper maintenance, assuming you don’t live in an area that is overly wet or prone to extremely high winds.

While stucco is still admirable when it comes to durability, there are some types that seem to be more durable than others. Traditional stucco is obviously the more durable type in terms of make (or system). With that said, there’s also a little more information we know—at least, anecdotally. Stuccos that are a little bit chunkier (like dash or Spanish Lace) tend to be slightly longer-lasting than others.

Knowing the type of stucco you have on the side of the home isn’t something to overlook. It’s vital, especially if you want to repair cracks that you start seeing or if you want to add a new section onto your home. Thankfully, figuring it out is pretty simple. Just knock on the stucco siding to find out if it’s synthetic.

Synthetic stucco siding tends to have a hollow sound. Traditional stucco, on the other hand, will have a thick, filled-in feeling whenever you knock on it. Of course, if you have a type of stucco specific to traditional, it’s safe to assume that you have traditional stucco.

To a point, stucco is remarkably steady when it comes to prices. Most places will add stucco to a home’s siding for anywhere between $7 to $9 per square foot, depending on the type and the area you live in. If you want to have synthetic stucco instead, the price is far lower, at around $3.90 to $7.95 per square foot.

Believe it or not, stucco is considered to be one of the most expensive types of siding that you can buy. The reason why is twofold. The materials are pretty pricey due to the high price of cement and the sheer quantity of cement that you will need for a full wall. Moreover, applying stucco is a highly labor-intensive endeavor.

If you love the look of stucco but don’t like the price tag, it’s understandable. You can save a considerable amount of money by switching to a synthetic stucco. You will get the same look, similar durability, and decent energy efficiency at a fraction of the cost.

It’s important to note that repairing stucco or replacing stucco doesn’t have the same cost as just adding some siding for the first time. If you want to replace stucco siding, you can expect to add a dollar to the price of your stucco, solely from the cost of sandblasting to clear out the old.

This is a surprisingly pricey issue, indeed. Though it can vary from type to type, labor is the bulk of the costs. Materials are nominal, in most cases. Labor costs will be between $60 to $120 per square foot, with synthetic stucco being the pricier pick. Material costs can vary greatly, with the full range being between $10 to $50 for the stucco, plus an additional $50 for finishing materials.

Overall, you should expect to see a repair bill that is at least several hundred dollars if you have a serious repair. If it gets to the point where you have a very large hole punched in your stucco, then you might need to get a full replacement order for that wall. This can easily amount to several thousand dollars, depending on how bad the damage is.

There’s a huge number of stucco variations, ranging from traditional and synthetic to textures like cat face, worm, and dash. Choosing between textures such as Spanish lace, Santa Barbara, smooth, float, English, and lace and skip allows you to truly customize your home’s design.

Make it even more unique by choosing between cement-based, acrylic, or synthetic finish materials and application styles like one-coat, three-coat, and EIFS. And of course, you’ll need to select your color scheme, whether that’s neutral, white, yellow, green, pink, or even two-tone.

Stucco never goes out of style, and it’s a great way to highlight beautiful architecture and make your home stand out. Knowing the differences between all the different types of stucco allows you to really make it your own.