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Location: Leighton Rd, Victoria, BC
Project type: Full exterior stucco repaint with colour change
Completed: May 2026
Days on site: 6 · Crew: 3 painters · Surface area: ~2,400 sq ft
The homeowner on Leighton Rd had lived with the same cream stucco for nearly two decades. Sun, salt air, and a few Pacific winters had taken the colour from "warm" to "tired," and small surface cracks were starting to widen along the south wall. They wanted to refresh the entire exterior — siding, trim, and the cedar storage door — and shift the palette to something with more depth and a craftsman feel.
This is one of the most common conversations we have with Victoria-area homeowners. Stucco doesn't really fail — it just slowly loses its character over 15-20 years until the colour reads dated. The fix isn't replacement. It's a proper colour change with the right coating.
Stucco is unforgiving on colour decisions. Once it's sprayed, every undertone reads three shades stronger than it did on the sample card. We've seen homeowners pick "a nice warm beige" from a 2-inch swatch and watch it land on the wall as full-on orange.
Before committing to a single tone, we painted two large test patches on the rear south-facing wall — one a deep teal-blue, one a warm terracotta peach — and asked the homeowner to look at them at three different times of day: morning, mid-afternoon sun, and golden hour. The terracotta won unanimously.
Stucco repaints live or die on prep. Before any colour went up, the crew:
• Pressure-washed the entire exterior to remove decades of coastal grime, mildew on the north-side overhang, and loose surface particles.
• Patched hairline cracks in the stucco with a flexible elastomeric filler that moves with seasonal expansion.
• Spot-primed patches and weathered areas with an alkaline-resistant masonry primer so the topcoat would absorb evenly.
• Masked windows, the cedar storage door, downspouts, and landscaping with plastic and painter's tape — careful work especially around the new cedar accent which the homeowner wanted to keep its natural finish.
For coastal Victoria stucco we specified a high-grade 100% acrylic elastomeric coating — flexible enough to bridge small future cracks, breathable enough to release any moisture trapped behind the wall, and rated for at least 10 years in marine air.
Two full coats went on with airless sprayers, back-rolled into the stucco texture to ensure the paint locked into every dimple of the surface. The cedar storage door was left untouched and finished separately with a clear marine-grade UV sealer to keep its natural grain visible against the new warm wall colour.
The new warm terracotta-and-tan combination gives the home a craftsman-bungalow warmth it never had under the original cream. The contrasting cedar door now feels intentional rather than incidental, and the white-painted trim crisply outlines every window and roofline.
The homeowner gets a 3-year written warranty on the work, full WCB and liability coverage, and a documented colour spec for any future touch-up. We expect this finish to hold strong against Victoria coastal weather for 8–10 years before the next refresh is even on the horizon.
Days on site: 6
Crew size: 3 painters
Surface area: ~2,400 sq ft of stucco exterior
Coating: 100% acrylic elastomeric, 2 coats
Warranty: 3 years written
Insurance: $5M general liability + active WCB
Service area: Victoria — Saanich corridor
If your stucco is looking dated, peeling at the edges, or just reading as the wrong era for your home, the fix is usually faster and less expensive than full re-stuccoing. A properly prepped and coated stucco refresh holds 8-10 years on a Victoria home.
Call (250) 385-0478 or request a free quote here. We'll come walk the property, talk through colour direction, and give you a straight written number — including timing, surface prep, and coating spec.
Top Coat Painting serves Victoria, Esquimalt, Saanich, Oak Bay, Sidney, Langford, Colwood, Sooke, View Royal, Central Saanich, and the Gulf Islands. Fully insured. WCB-active since 2005.
