Rendering 1930s semi

Our house is a 1930s north London semi with brick on the bottom half and pebble dash on the top half. The pebble dash is unpainted, and rather patchy - there are some areas which have previously had dripping from gutters (now fixed). There are a few small cracks in the existing render.

We would like to do something to improve the appearance of the house.

  1. Would painting the existing pebbledash hide the uneavenness of the existing pebble dash?

  1. We are considering re-rendering over the existing pebble dash, either with one of the polymer based things like K-Rend or Pliolite, or with a cement based render. My main concern with this option is the adherance of the new render to the existing substrate. Is a cement based render more likely to stick on properly that the polymer stuff?

Any advice appreciated!

Reply to
jocasta.perry
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I hate it 'full stop' when someone has pebble dashed over they're house but to render it would make it look flat and featureless. to me pebble dash is no more than a sponge for absorbing water(rain).

Just my 2p worth.

Reply to
ben

I have pebbledash too, and painted it looks a lot more even, certainly a lot cleaner looking.

I agree that smooth render wont improve the look.

Reply to
David P

It's a horrible task to paint it, and that's an ongoing maintenance nightmare -- it would be a negative point for me if I was looking to buy your house.

Have you thought of trying washing it to start with, which would not prevent you trying any other route afterwards if you still don't like it?

Sounds like a bad idea to me, although I don't know the products you mention. Might end up trapping damp behind, and later frost damage could push the whole lot off, or end up with damp coming through if it's a solid wall.

Pebble dash is actually a weather protection layer if properly done. If it's still on a 1930's house (OP didn't say it was coming off), then it sounds like it was properly done.

Reply to
Andrew Gabriel

If it's anything like my house (lime mortar and soft bricks) I'd avoid the plastic coating or cement render. I've an idea that chipping out the render around the cracks, grinding it down a bit and mixing with lime putty would be a reasonable way of matching the original finish - anyone care to put me right?

Reply to
Rob Morley

It is my view that pebbledash cannot be succesfully repaired to give a uniform appearance in most cases. I myself have experience with trying to blend in a crack after it was repaired. It is not totally impossible but if there is a lot of area to repair it is too fiddly. The analogy that comes to mind is that of repairing a scratch or scrape on car paintwork. You can bodge it and use touchup paint, or you can go for a respray. I'd say your options were to either paint it, or have it scraped off and rerendered ( plenty of folks down my way having their houses rerendered after 70 years of service ). Just a personal view, paint looks nicer, particularly if you choose a nice colour ( buttermilk is a favourite, anything but beige! ). I can imagine the need for repainting is a pain. but with one of the expensive paints ( Dulux weathershield, for example ), I believe 10+ years between coats is not unrealistic. I have a garage painted in Dulux Weathershield, and after 4 years there is no sign of discolouration or deterioration. It is a good idea to apply fungicide/bleach to the house first.

Painting pebbledash is a killer with a paintbrush, it will take days, literally. I would look at airless sprayers etc.

Andy.

Reply to
andrewpreece

There's a great variety of off-white to pale yellow houses around here, with the occasional oddity like pistachio green or sky blue. One thing I don't understand is why people paint their brickwork in brick red - it very rarely looks right.

Reply to
Rob Morley

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