Old adobe vs new stucco, I went traditional and paid for it

When we redid the east wall of our 1940s place in the North Valley, I had to pick between lime plaster like the original or a modern synthetic stucco. The lime ran $2,300 more and took forever to cure, but I figured the house deserved it. Three years later and there's a crack running the whole length by the porch that I've patched twice already. My neighbor used the synthetic stuff on the same kind of wall and it's still perfect. Has anyone else stuck with traditional materials and come to regret it, or is it just my luck with the freeze thaw cycles we get here?

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ryantorres23d ago

Laughing at that crack from my own lime plaster experiment over here. I went traditional on my porch steps and now I get to play whack-a-mole with spalling every single spring. Sure, the synthetic stuff looks a bit flat up close, but you know what else looks great? A wall that doesn't need patching every time the weather sneezes. I've started calling my lime repair kit my "second mortgage starter set." Honestly, next time I'll just slap some stucco on it and call it a day, authenticity be damned.