Hello.
I've no idea about diy so after some advice!
Have a small two bed victorian terrace house with pebble dashed front. The stuff is in good condition - but I hate the stuff.
I would prefer the original bricks underneath, but have read this might not be possible, so would be happy with a rendered front.
How much (roughly) would it cost to remove the stuff? Could I do it myself? (For an expert) would it be an easy enough job?
TIA
J
================================ Me thinks that's a mixture of Concrete and course gravel if I'm right then you have a very hard long slog.? Paint it white.
Grouch
It's mortar with gravel embedded in the surface. If it's well attached it's a pig to get off with a hammer and bolster, fairly easy with an SDS drill and chisel bit, say 40mm wide. But the drill will be heavy and not particularly comfortable to use from up a ladder. A tower scaffold might be better. The SDS will probably leave a rough finish so re-rendering or some form of cladding or facing would be necessary. Although rendering at ground level is not that hard to learn, a large area over a house front is not the best way to start learning and I would not recommend it.
M.
Remember that peebledashing is usually put on for a reason rather than as a fashion statement. Generally there is something to hide under the dashing, maybe the bricks are crumbling, or there have been unsightly repairs in non-matching bricks (common in repairs to bomb damage post war). It may just have been that it needed re-pointing and to dash was cheaper than repointing (still is). It may have been to try and cure a rain penetration problem in a non cavity wall.
To ensure dashing sticks, a good 'key' is required, and although this is sometimes just done by raking out the mortar joints, often the wall is hacked with a pointed hammer to makes lots of key areas with no regard to the visual impact on the bricks, as they are about to be covered up.
When dashing is removed it is common that chunks of brickwork also come away, and certainly unsightly bits around the mortar joints will damaged.
A house not too far from me had dashing hacked off to reveal an absolutely horrendous scarred surface. Not only did the owners have to have the walls repointed, they had to have extensive areas cut out and replaced. The finished job doesn't look too bad at a distance, but close examination shows that to conceal the extensive damage to the brick near the mortar joints they have had to repoint with a very odd style where the entire joint sits proud of the face, and no doubt this will lead to water problems as each course is effectively a little ledge for the rain to sit on and penetrate.
Andrew Mawson
On 14 Feb 2004, Andrew Mawson wrote
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The OP did say, though, that he was happy to replace the pebbledash with render, rather than to expose the brick.
On 14 Feb 2004, Grouch wrote
re: removing pebbledash-
Painting pebbledash is certainly one answer to brightening it up, but so far on my own house I've decided not to do that.
Granted, grey pebbledash isn't nearly as pleasant-looking as a nice, cleanly-painted facade -- but once it's painted it's painted, and then it'll need....periodical repainting.
I'd recommend giving it a long bit of nuisance-vs-benefit thought before introducing a previously-unnecessary maintenance cycle to a property; might be worth it, but might not.
On 14 Feb 2004, Harvey Van Sickle wrote
Oops. "Periodic repainting". (No magazines involved, unless the decorators bring them with them...)
Mine's coming off the back wall of it's own accord thanks to the previous owners at some stage having the whole house re-dashed but not bothering to take the original stuff off first...
Mark S.
Pebble dash was usually put on single brick houses to keep the rain out - no pebble dash = wet rooms.
Yes, equally an infinite number of monkeys on typewriters will eventually reproduce Hamlet. It's a very long job if the stuff is in good condition.
No, hence the bill you can expect. Whatever you do avoid the "wall treatment" "specialists" who are neither but charge several thousand pound for their ministrations.
If its not in brilliant condition it should come off, but theres a lot of brick clean up to do afterwards, and it may well have been rendered because the wall looked so bad unrendered. Its not unusual to remove render only to find the brick wall has been patched under all the windows with odd lightweight blocks, often broken ones at that, making leaving it on display not a happy option. Or it may be the bricks are in a bad way, and rendering is practically necessary.
So you dont know what youll find, but probably can remove it. DIY? Sure, if you dont mind hard work. Just accept the results are a complete unknown.
Just one caveat; if you have 4" walls you probably need the render for strength, if so dont remove it. Some smaller Victorians have 4" walls.
Regards, NT
iF OU ARE GOING TO RENDER, AND ITS SOUND, WHY NOT SIMPLY SLAP IT ON ON TOP?
Bugger caps lock/ Mumble splurf.....
Having been there and done that I'd think twice before resorting to painting... it's an absolute sod to do; you need to stipple paint on to get it between all the highs and lows on the surface. Paint rollers are ineffective. Takes forever to do, and is bloody hard work. Once you've painted it once there's no going back, as Harvey says; although admittedly subsequent repainting isn't half as bad on the wrists!
David
Plus if the pebble isn't firmly embedded and bits flake off, it leaves unsightly grey splodges that need touched up.
But as someone who's name escapes me pointed out, "They used to say that an infinite number of monkeys sitting at an infinite number of typewriters would eventually reproduce the works of Shakespeare. Now we have the internet, we know that's not true."
Rubbish. The Internet has only been available to the general public (the monkeys) for less than about 10 years - prior to that it was pretty much the domain of military and academic circles.
Be patient. One day our league of monkeys will come out with something remotely useful.
PoP
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My published email address probably won't work. If you need to contact me please submit your comments via the web form at
Pah. I've had an Internet email address for (gulp) just under
20 years. Although it was called the Arpanet, then.
To find out if it's sound, tap it with a screwdriver handle or something. You'll tell by the sound how much of it will fall off and how much will be a pig.
"PoP" wrote | (mike) wrote: | >But as someone who's name escapes me pointed out, "They used to say | >that an infinite number of monkeys sitting at an infinite number of | >typewriters would eventually reproduce the works of Shakespeare. | >Now we have the internet, we know that's not true." | Rubbish. The Internet has only been available to the general public | (the monkeys) for less than about 10 years - prior to that it was | pretty much the domain of military and academic circles. | Be patient. One day our league of monkeys will come out with something | remotely useful.
But by then our education system will be so poor, will anyone recognise it as Shakespeare?
Owain
It has already happened. Twice. Things My Girlfriend and I Have Argued About
Wouldn't the spray gun be your friend?
Christian.
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