Plastering pebble dash wall?

[Weathergirl]

Any help would be welcome here.

I have a pebble dash wall that has had some work and is now scarred, thus making said pebble dash even less attractive to the eye, and it wasn't pretty before.

We need to move soon (baby coming! Agh!) and so we're looking for the cheapest, most effective way of making this good before we try and sell.

Can it be plastered over?

Does anyone know of anyone who does this kind of work locally?

Any guidance would be massively appreciated.

Thank you

[Jules-and-Boo]

you'd need to have the pebble dash taken off rather than plastering on top of it to smooth it over.

It's do-able. Not sure of cost and not sure what you'd find underneath - presumably in line with your neighbour's

[Weathergirl]

Ah. Ok thanks. Don't feel massively confident of what may be lurking underneath!

[Calsug]

Unless it looks truly terrible I would be inclined to leave it, it will cost a lot to fix and you won't get that added expense from a buyer. Best let a buyer look at it and let them deal with it when they move in

[Jeremy]

I would think that painting it is the cheapest way of making it look acceptable. Our house has, unfortunately, been pebble-dashed, we just had the whole thing painted white which made it look (sort of) OK, at least in the medium term.

[LondonMix]

Painting makes it look a lot better.

There are local companies that remove pebble dash and render. We have friends who've looked into it and it costs circa 5-6k for the basic removal. However, there may be significant repointing work that needs to be done to the original brick once the render is removed.

You might get your money back on doing the work as a lot of people hate pebble dash but equally you could unleash a can of worms. The safest bet is just to paint it and hang some flowers to distract the eye :)

[Jeremy]

Also with removal, there's a danger that the original installers "roughed up" the brick surface to create a key for the render.. you might be left with a real mess that even repointing won't fix.

[Weathergirl]

Thanks all.

I had a suspicion that the cost was going to be out of my reach but the problem with just painting is that the pebble dash is scarred and missing in chunks where we've had work done. So I'm not actually sure if it would improve it.

Maybe it's possible to get a spray of pebble dash over the messy bits to blend it and then paint it!

Although I have absolutely no idea whether pebbke dashing as an art form still exists...

[red devil]

My suggestion would be to make good the existing pebble dash and then give it all a lick of paint. I'm sure a jobbing builder could do that...

[Weathergirl]

Thanks yes, I think I may look into that.

Builder forum, here I come!

[ed_pete]

These guys came recommended to me but I haven't used them yet.

http://www.ridgeandsons.com/

[Weathergirl]

Ooh great. Thanks

[Jeremy]

What Red Devil said.

[Earl Aelfheah]

We got ours 'flat rendered'. On the front, this involved removing the pebbledash and having it re-rendered. On the rest of the house the pebbledash was rendered over. The whole thing was painted white and looks sooooo much better imo. It was expensive mind.

[uncleglen]

Yes agree with Red devil- my dad had pebble dashing and some of it 'blew' as he called it...areas had to be removed and re-done or else it just falls off apparently.

[Weathergirl]

Rahrah. I didn't think it could be rendered over?

[Earl Aelfheah]

It can be. You have to remove any loose pebbles, or areas where it's blown. so there is a certain amount of removal. But the areas which are sound can be rendered over. We had ours done a couple of years ago (I think) and it's all good. At the front, where it's not just a flat surface (Victorian features) we had to remove the PD first.

[Earl Aelfheah]

There are also specialist companies which will take it back to the brickwork, but that is very expensive. They have to replace some bricks and repoint afterwards (see: http://www.mahonbrickwork.co.uk/).

[Jeremy]

I believe generally it's considered bad form to re-render over existing render (including pebbledash), because the lifetime of it will only be as good as the original render underneath it. In fact, the extra weight might cause it to come away sooner. But if you find a reputable builder who's willing to do it AND guarantee his work for a number of years, then fine...

[poppet27]

Let us know how you get on Weathergirl.

We also have pebbledash which was painted the colour of egg yolk! I hate it! McMahon and Essex Brickwork both quoted about ?5K plus VAT for removal of the pebbledash and repointing up to 90 bricks. A few people have had it removed on our street and it looks great. But Jeremy's point about the possibility of bricks being roughed up is one I hadn't thought of.

Our other options (until we can save up the big bucks!) are

1. Smooth render over it and paint it.

2. Have someone just repaint it so it's at least not yellow.

I know either is ideal. Unfortunately all our pillars and decorative mouldings around the Victorian window were also dashed with something, so whilst they're white, they have a rough coating. I'm all ears for advice.

[Seabag]

Do it properly or not at all

Get it painted a colour you love, then love the colour not the texture underneath

It's the harsh reality of PD and living with someone's past decisions

I feel your pain