Polished plaster is a fine mineral coating under a millimetre thick that goes on walls and takes no foot traffic. Polished stucco is one to two millimetres and handles ambient humidity better. Microcement is a multi-coat system two to three millimetres thick with a sealer, and it is the only one of the three you can walk on.

Comparison

	Polished plaster	Polished stucco	Microcement
Thickness	Under 1 mm	1 to 2 mm	2 to 3 mm
Substrate	Rendered wall	Rendered wall or slab	Wall, slab, existing tile
Foot traffic	No	No	Yes, with sealer
Wet areas	Not advisable	Yes, with sealer	Yes
Relative cost	Low	Medium	High
Typical use	Interior walls	Bathroom and humid-area walls	Floors, bathrooms, stairs

The most common mistake

Asking for microcement on a decorative interior wall. It works, but you are paying two to three times more for traffic resistance that wall will never need. For a living-room wall, polished plaster gives the same visual result at a fraction of the cost.

The reverse mistake also happens and it is worse: polished plaster on a floor or in a shower. That is not about cost, it is that it will come off.

What determines the result is not the product

It is the substrate. All three systems fail for the same reasons: rising damp, a moving slab, construction joints that were ignored, or a badly prepared surface. The product is the last layer of a decision made much earlier.

That is why a serious quote starts with a site inspection and not with a colour chart.

Microcement, polished plaster and stucco: which to choose

Comparison

The most common mistake

What determines the result is not the product

Tell us what you need

Finishes or maintenance

Design or new construction