A waterfront house on Lake Scugog
This home sits on a shoreline lot in Caesarea, on the east side of Lake Scugog, with a lawn running from the house down to the water. At the main-floor entrance it has a covered front porch with beige lap siding, a stone base, square posts and a beadboard ceiling, set so it looks across the lawn to the lake. On the lake side, the ground drops away so the lower level opens out as a walkout, and that walkout wall is finished in stucco, sitting under a wooden deck that serves the main floor. Houses on the water in Scugog often mix materials like this, with lap siding on the main floor and masonry on the walkout level below.
The owners asked us to deal with the stucco wall, which was peeling badly, and to refresh the front porch at the same time.
A wall that could not breathe
From a distance the stucco looked as if it had simply worn out. Up close the problem was different. At some point the wall had been coated with a glossy, film-forming paint that did not let moisture pass through. Stucco absorbs water from rain, from the deck dripping above it and from the ground, and that water needs a way out. Trapped behind the coating, it had pushed the paint off in blisters the size of a hand, some still full, others burst and peeling at the edges.
The lake made it worse. Sunlight reflecting off the water strikes the lower wall in the afternoon, heating the surface and driving the trapped moisture outward. The wall was blistering most where the sun and the deck drip overlapped.
Other findings
- Under the deck, at the line where water dripped between the boards, the stucco surface had spalled, with small pieces flaking off.
- The porch ceiling boards had grey mildew spotting, especially in the corner farthest from the sun.
- The bottoms of the porch posts, where they meet the stone base, had peeling paint and slightly grey wood.
- The beige porch siding had faded but was well bonded, and the owners wanted to keep its colour.
Removing the old coating and preparing the stucco
The key decision on this job was to take off the non-breathable coating rather than paint over it. Any new paint applied on top would have been held only by a layer that was already letting go, and the trapped moisture would still have had nowhere to go.
- Protection. The lawn below the walkout was covered with drop cloths over plastic, the patio stones were sheeted, and the patio doors and lower windows were masked.
- Removal. Blisters and loose coating were scraped off, and the remaining patches were worked with wire brushes until the coating was gone or tightly bonded at its edges only. A low-pressure wash then rinsed off the dust and residue.
- Drying. The bare stucco was left to dry through a stretch of warm, dry weather. Masonry close to a lake can hold moisture for a long time, so we checked it by hand and by taping a square of plastic to the wall overnight; no condensation behind it in the morning meant the wall was ready.
- Repairs. Spalled areas under the deck were cleaned back to firm material and patched with stucco repair mortar, textured to match. We pointed out that the deck boards above were dripping onto this wall and recommended a drip edge along the deck rim so water would stop running straight down the stucco.
- Priming. The whole wall was primed with a breathable masonry primer, which evens out the absorbency of the old stucco and the new patches without forming a vapour-tight film.
Prep on the front porch
Ceiling
The beadboard ceiling was washed with a mildew wash, rinsed lightly and left to dry, then lightly scuffed so the new paint would grip. Grooves were brushed out to remove any residue.
Posts and trim
The bottoms of the posts were scraped, the grey wood was sanded back to fresh fibre, and the end grain at the base was primed with an exterior acrylic wood primer. Small gaps where the posts meet the porch beam were caulked.
Siding
The beige siding was washed and lightly sanded at a few rough spots, and bare areas along the bottom course were spot-primed.
Painting each surface
Stucco walkout wall
For the stucco we used a 100% acrylic masonry paint that lets water vapour pass through, in a flat finish, in a soft teal. It was rolled on with thick-nap rollers and worked into the texture with stucco brushes around windows and the patio door frame. The wall received two finish coats, with the second going on only after the recoat interval printed on the can had been met. Because the reflected light off the lake makes the wall hot in the afternoon, painting on that side was done in the morning, before the sun came around.
Porch
- Siding: two coats of beige satin, colour-matched from a clean sample of the existing siding.
- Posts, railings and trim: white semi-gloss, applied by brush in two coats.
- Beadboard ceiling: two coats of a pale sky blue in satin, brushed into the grooves and rolled across the faces.
How the teal was chosen
The owners wanted the lake side to feel connected to the water without looking out of place against the beige of the rest of the house. Several blue-green sample pots came out at the free colour consultation, and each was painted on the stucco itself, near the patio door. The deepest looked heavy from the dock; the lightest washed out in the reflected afternoon light. A soft teal, mid-depth and slightly grey, held up in both morning shade and evening sun. The pale blue for the porch ceiling was the owners’ idea, and it brightens the porch without competing with the view of the water.
The walkout wall now shows a single, even teal from the lawn and the dock, and the front porch has fresh beige siding, crisp white posts and a light blue ceiling overhead.
Tidiness on a waterfront lot
Scrapings and coating chips were caught on drop cloths and bagged every day so nothing could wash toward the lake. Rinse water from the stucco was directed onto the lawn, away from the shoreline, and no wash residue went into the water. Every evening the ladders came down and went into the garage along with the paint and tools, and the porch floor got a sweep before dark so the family could sit out in the evening.
Upkeep for a lakeside finish
- Do not seal or coat the stucco with any glossy or waterproofing product in future; it needs to keep breathing.
- A drip edge along the deck rim keeps water off the stucco; each spring, look over the wall below the deck for new flaking.
- Wash the porch ceiling once a year with a mild mildew wash if spots return in the shaded corner.
- Labelled touch-up cans for the teal, beige, white and ceiling blue were left in the garage.
Why this suits homes on Lake Scugog
Waterfront walls around Caesarea and Port Perry take wind, moisture and light reflected off the lake, and they wear faster than the sheltered sides of the same house. On masonry, the right product matters as much as the prep: a coating that seals in moisture fails here sooner than almost anywhere. Choosing breathable materials, planning lake-side work around the sun, and keeping debris away from the water are how we handle exterior painting on homes near the water, and on properties across Durham Region. Painting homes in Toronto and throughout the GTA since 2010, we apply a minimum of two finish coats.
If the paint on your lake-side wall is blistering or peeling, send us a message and we will visit, look at the coating and the wall behind it, and write an itemized quote.
