Paint Over Damaged Stucco
In the picture above the wall has been repaired
and this is visible from the irregularities in the wall texture. If the
wall is consistently the same texture this would give you a pretty good
clue that the house has very little damage or has been repaired
correctly.
You can see spots all over this wall, on the bottom right above the
crack in the cement, the wall is smooth with a good sized lump, above
that more towards the upper center you can see a rougher texture and
smooth areas.
These are clear signs that someone has applied new color coat in these
areas. Most of the time these repairs are done by the painters who have
little experience repairing damaged walls.
As a home inspector you will be looking for any irregularities in the
walls and some will be more obvious than others.
In order to repair this wall correctly, the wall would have to be
sandblasted to remove the paint and then re color coated.
I am a firm believer in never painting stucco, especially in a situation
like this where the concrete sidewalk butts up against the stucco wall.
The sidewalk will provide moisture, which will in turn start to work its
way up into the stucco, creating eventually more damage to the house.