Cost guide

What Does It Cost to Restucco a Whole House in St. Lucie County?

Restucco means three different jobs at three different prices. Measure your own wall area first, then use the per square foot ranges below to work out which conversation you are actually having.

Restucco means three different jobs

When a homeowner in Port St. Lucie says restucco, they usually mean one of three things, and the gap between them is the whole reason estimates come back so far apart.

The first is a resurface. The existing stucco stays, gets prepared, gets its cracks addressed, and receives a new finish or levelling coat. The second is a partial replacement, where failed sections come off and are rebuilt and then the whole house is refinished so it reads as one wall. The third is a full remove and replace, where the plaster comes off the building and goes back from the substrate up. A resurface bid next to a remove and replace bid is not a comparison. It is two different projects.

• Resurface, existing stucco retained, prepared and refinished
• Partial replacement plus a full refinish so the house matches corner to corner
• Full remove and replace, back to block or back to sheathing and lath

Measure your own wall area first

Stucco is priced by wall area, not by the floor area on your tax record. A 2,000 square foot single story house does not have 2,000 square feet of wall. Getting your own rough number takes ten minutes and it turns every per square foot range into something you can actually use.

Walk the perimeter of the house and add up the lengths. Multiply that perimeter by the wall height, roughly nine to ten feet for a typical single story block home on the Treasure Coast, and double the height calculation for the two story portion if you have one. Then take off about fifteen to twenty percent for windows, doors and the garage opening.

A common single story block home here lands between 1,600 and 2,400 square feet of wall. A larger two story house in Palm City or Tradition can be well past 3,500. Do the arithmetic once and keep the number.

• Perimeter in feet times wall height in feet equals gross wall area
• Subtract roughly 15 to 20 percent for openings
• Count gable ends and second story separately, they add area and access cost
• Do not use your air conditioned square footage, it is a different measurement

The ranges, per square foot of wall

With your wall area in hand, these market ranges become useful. They reflect what this trade generally runs across Florida and they still need a site visit to become a real number.

Notice how wide the remove and replace band is. That is not vagueness. It is an honest reflection of a job whose scope is not fully knowable until the old plaster is off and the substrate is visible.

• Resurface with crack preparation and a new finish, commonly $3 to $6 per square foot of wall
• Partial replacement plus full refinish, commonly $5 to $9 per square foot of wall
• Full remove and replace on block, commonly $7 to $12 per square foot of wall
• Full remove and replace on frame with new lath and three coats, commonly $9 to $15 per square foot of wall
• Elastomeric coating as the finish rather than paint, generally adds $1 to $3 per square foot

Block or frame changes almost everything

Most housing stock across St. Lucie, Martin and Indian River counties is concrete block. Block is good news here. It is dimensionally stable, it does not rot, it needs no lath across the field, and once failed plaster is removed the wall underneath is usually sound. That keeps a replacement job predictable and near the lower end of the band.

Frame construction is a different job. Three coat stucco over frame needs a weather resistive barrier and metal lath before any plaster goes on, and the crew can find rusted lath, soft sheathing or a bad flashing detail once the wall is open. More material, more labour, more unknowns.

Plenty of Treasure Coast homes are both. Block on the first floor, frame on the second, frame gable ends and foam band trim. Make sure each quote identifies which parts of your house are which, because that mix is where estimates quietly diverge.

Access, height and what is standing in the way

A crew that can walk the full perimeter with ladders and a mixer parked in the driveway works fast. Anything that stops that costs money before a single bag is opened.

Two story elevations mean staging, scaffold or a lift, and a lift needs ground it can drive on and a gate it fits through. Pool cages, screen rooms and covered entries create walls that have to be worked by hand in tight space. Barrel tile roof edges and low soffits slow the top of every wall.

• Second story and gable ends, staging or lift required
• Screen enclosure or pool cage restricting equipment placement
• Narrow side yards, common on zero lot line and villa lots
• Barrel tile roof edges, soffits and decorative bands requiring hand work
• Landscaping, irrigation and hardscape needing protection
• Occupied home, which limits hours and adds daily cleanup

Finish, colour and HOA approval

The finish is a design decision with a price attached. A smooth or fine sand finish shows every imperfection behind it and takes more labour to get flat. Knockdown, dash and lace textures are more forgiving and quicker. On a partial job, matching an existing texture is its own skilled task and belongs on the estimate as a line rather than an assumption.

Then decide between integral colour in the finish coat and a coating applied afterward. Integral colour will not peel, but it cannot be changed without recoating and matching a repair into it later is harder. A coating gives you colour flexibility and a maintenance path, and it adds cost.

If you live in a master planned community such as Tradition or St. Lucie West, or in any neighbourhood with an active association, exterior colour typically goes through architectural review. Do not order material before you know where that stands. Submit early, because approval timelines are set by your association and they sit on the critical path of your project.

Timeline, weather and living in the house

A whole house restucco is generally a one to three week project, and the spread is driven by the scope, the wall area, the access and the weather. Florida gives us a year round work season, which is a genuine advantage over most of the country. What we trade for it is humidity and afternoon storms through the summer, both of which stretch cure times and close coating windows.

Plan around it rather than fighting it. Expect weather days in the schedule and be suspicious of a rigid calendar with none in it. Wind driven rain during hurricane season is also the reason to get flashings, penetrations and sealant details right during the job rather than as a punch item afterward.

You can usually stay in the house. Expect noise, expect windows covered on the elevation being worked, and expect the yard to be a work site. If the house is vacant, say so when you request quotes. Vacant homes are easier to schedule and easier to work, and that can show up in the number.

Every figure here is a market range for building a budget and reading your quotes. Your actual price comes from someone standing at your walls, measuring them and sounding them.