QUESTION

I have a building in Bloomington IL that has a brick facade. Temperatures fluctuate from below zero in the winter to 90+ degrees in the summer. The brick is from approximately the 1920's and has a smooth white porcelain surface. I am in the process of replacing some of the smooth surface brick with red porous brick and I want to stucco the entire brick facade. Will stucco adhere to the smooth white porcelain brick surface with the correct latex/polymer modified thin-set. I would appreciate some expert advice on how to correctly stucco this type of brick.

ANSWER

ANSWER - I would be surprised if the brick is made of porcelain clay which is very dense and has 0.5% absorption or less.  There are some very dense clay brick.

Stucco is a weak cementitious final coating over a plaster base.  Maybe if you scarified the brick, power wash and dry, and then used the latex/polymer modified stucco over it, it might work.  You would have to experiment.

Otherwise you can mechanically fasten metal lath to the brick and float a scratch and brown mortar/plaster base and then apply the stucco.  I would use the latex/polymer version so it doesn't have too much absorption to be a freeze-thaw problem.