What it is called, by market
One concept, four markets. Where a name means something else locally, the card says so rather than leaving you to find out on site.
United Statesyours
Close, not identicalstucco
also cement plaster
American stucco is specifically a Portland-cement plaster, a narrower family than British render.
Canada
Close, not identicalstucco
As the United States, stucco means a Portland-cement plaster specifically, which is narrower than the render family a British or Australian specification means.
United Kingdom
Close, not identicalrender
also cement render, monocouche
Render covers cement, lime and polymer systems — a broader family than American stucco.
Australia
Close, not identicalrender
also cement render, acrylic render
As the UK, render covers cement, lime and polymer systems — so it is a broader family than American stucco, and the systems are not interchangeable.
The governing standard, by market
United States
ASTM C926
Application of Portland cement-based plaster.
United Kingdom
BS EN 13914-1
Design, preparation and application of external rendering.
Calculators for this
Each works in either measurement system, and the terminology on the page follows whichever market you have selected.
Frequently asked questions
- Is render the same as stucco?
- Closely related rather than identical, and flattening the two loses something that matters. American stucco is a Portland-cement plaster, with its composition and application governed as such. British and Australian render is a broader family: cement renders, lime renders, and proprietary polymer or acrylic systems, each with different vapour permeability, different movement tolerance and different substrates they suit. Substituting one for the other without checking the specification can put an impermeable cement coat on a wall that needed a breathable lime one — which traps moisture in the masonry instead of letting it out, and is a common cause of damage to older solid-wall buildings.
- Why do the base coat and the lath matter more than the finish?
- Because the finish is what is seen and the base is what fails. A rendered or stuccoed wall is a system: a substrate, a means of attachment, one or more base coats carrying the strength and the reinforcement, and a finish coat carrying the appearance. Where the wall is not solid masonry, a metal lath provides the key, and the lath's fixing and laps are what stop the render coming away in sheets. The other detail with the same weight is the base of the wall — a weep screed or bell-cast bead that lets water which gets behind the coating escape, and stops the render standing in contact with the ground. Failures usually trace to one of those two rather than to the mix.
- What is monocouche, and is there an American equivalent?
- Monocouche is a through-coloured, factory-batched render applied in a single pass — literally one coat, though it is normally applied in two passes worked together — which finishes the wall without a separate decorative coat. It is common in Britain and continental Europe and the word is used directly. The nearest American equivalent is a one-coat stucco system, which is a proprietary product family doing broadly the same job, though the products and their approvals are not interchangeable. The point of both is the same: fewer passes, no painting, and the colour in the material rather than on it — with the corresponding disadvantage that a repair is visible in a way a painted finish is not.