Stucco facts for kids

Milan, Italy: inside view of the church of San Vito in Pasquirolo. Detail: stuccos by the Fiammenghini brothers

Stucco is a special building material. It's made from a mix of sand, a sticky substance (like cement or lime), and water. When you put stucco on, it's wet, but it soon dries into a very hard and strong surface.

People use stucco in many ways. It's often put on walls and ceilings to make them look nice. It can also be shaped into sculptures and artistic designs, especially in old buildings. Stucco is great for covering up less attractive building materials like metal, concrete, cinder blocks, or plain bricks.

In English, we usually call the material used on the outside of a building "stucco." The material used inside is often called "plaster." Even though they have different names, they are often made of very similar things. However, in other languages, like Italian, the word stucco means both. This is why you might hear "stucco" used to describe fancy, raised designs on inside walls.

Images for kids

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  Stucco used as an exterior coating on a residential building.

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  Baroque stucco decorations of the main nave of the Jasna Góra Monastery basilica, 1693–1695

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  Applying stucco

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  A wall finished with a stucco overlay, called tadelakt

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  Damaged stucco that has begun to delaminate from its masonry substrate.

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  Diagram showing the use of wire mesh as a substrate for an exterior application of Portland cement.

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  Fragment from a Roman relief; circa 138-161 AD; height: 20.9 cm; Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York City)

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  Statue of seated Buddha; circa 300s; overall: 36.9 cm; from Hadda (Afghanistan); Cleveland Museum of Art (Cleveland, Ohio, USA)

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  Maya wall panel depicting Ix K'an Bolon; circa 790 AD (Late Classic period); limestone, stucco and paint; from Pomona (Tabasco, Mexico) Dallas Museum of Art (Dallas, Texas, USA)