Preparing and painting the stucco, or not

I have this weird combination of the fountain and the fire pit, built as one unit, or at least sharing one common wall.
http://www.doityourself.com/forum/po...ature-one.html
I can't stucco for the life of me , so I hired a guy to do it for me. Now I am not sure what would be the best way to finish the surface, especially inside the fire pit. Initially I was planing on finishing both inside and outside surfaces (to prevent it from future efflorescence) of the fire pit with drylock, but the inside of the fountain with ThoroSeal. I assume that regular stucco color will be a little less maintenance compare to the acrylic paint, and I doubt that acrylic paint is the right material for the temperatures inside the fire pit. But not sure if stucco color can/should be applied over the DryLock
I also have a concrete block (filled) bbq, finished the same way as my fire pit and of course wanted to have it the same color. Since I am using pressure treated plywood as a substrate for my counter, I was thinking of DryLock-ing it as well to prevent moisture from wicking through the block to the bottom of the plywood and slowly deteriorating it.
Thanks a lot for your suggestions!

 

"regular stucco color will be a little less maintenance compare to the acrylic paint"

I'm not sure I understand Stucco doesn't adhere well to paint or drylok. Latex paint is generally the preferred coating to use over stucco or masonry painted with drylok. Most latex paints have an acrylic base.

I'd rethink the PT plywood for the countertop. I don't know how well drylok would adhere to it as it's formulated for coating masonry. It can be difficult to get any coating to stick to PT wood until it has completely dried from the PT process. I would think covering plywood with cement board and tile would be a better option.

 

Thank you for your answer marksr & sorry for the confusion,
I tend to do it to myself and others

At the very beginning i was going to just stucco the whole thing and be done with it, but then when I realized that I may have to deal with efflorescence issues, I started thinking paint (over the DryLock) could be a better choice.

Again, the unresolvable (to me) problem/question - "Is it ok to use paint on the inside walls of my fire pit"? distance betwen the burner and the wall about 2.5"

I am actually using the PT plywood as a base for the cement board and then tile, I was just wondering if DryLock-ing the stucco and the inside surface of the block of my bbq would benefit or hurt the whole structure's longevity.
Thanks again!

 

""Is it ok to use paint on the inside walls of my fire pit"? distance betwen the burner and the wall about 2.5"

I don't know If the flames get closer than 2" to the paint I'd suspect the paint would start to bubble I'd either ask the paint rep at the store or maybe contact the paint manufacture and see what they say.

You could use a heat resistant paint like the BBQ black.

 

Thanks again,

I picked up a can of Heat Resistant RustOleum paint and called the number on the can. They say that their paint is not designed to do that. They said check with local fireplace store. That's my next move