Should I paint over pebble dash to sell my house?

[lambinapram]

I have a pebbledashed terraced house with cream windows and surround. My estate agent has said it will help sell the property by painting over the pebble dash. But because I have cream windows, i'm not sure what colour could work? I was thinking something darker in the same colour palette, like biscuit, fawn type colour. The other option to leave it as it is.

My house is similar to this:
www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-33546049.html?backListLink=%2Fproperty-for-sale%2FLeytonstone.html%3Findex%3D110&onetime_savedPropertyId=33546049#summary33546049

Any ideas? I'm useless at this kind of thing...

Yes paint the pebble dash, we are doing ours a bright light sunny yellow, with white ornamental bits and white window inserts, we live in a seaside town so this will work. Fawn or caramel with cream will look lovely. Several houses on our street have that colour. If you can, also replace your front door with wood if not done already, or wood effect double glazing, in blue. There is a fawn and cream coloured house with traditional blue door, silver handles and letter box. Looks awesome.

If you paint it yourself or get someone ele to do it, make sure you fill on cracks etc first for best quality, and use a very good quality paint, don't gp for cheapest colour as it can look awful and cheap can cover badly.

If it does add value it will certainly mean people will be more inclined to look, but I do think it will either add value or reduce lower offers made.

Thanks Pavlov! Good advice.

I agree with you OP and would paint it a taupe colour, nothing too warm. This would work well with the cream windows.

Yes. Definately.

God yes, paint it. And yes something a little darker than the windows (if you go lighter, it will just make it look like the windows have yellowed IMO).

Thanks all for your suggestions. I'll get out those colour charts!

no! it will stick out like a sore thumb. It looks absolutely fine and in keeping with it's era. Just freshen up the paintwork and have some petty colourful potted plants outside.

I'm in London & quite a few of the other houses are painted over, so I don't think it will stick out, but i need to get the colour right.

I would definitely paint it

Yes, I would paint it. That drab brown colour wouldn't appeal to anyone.

www.weathershield.ie/gallery/index.jsp
3rd row down, 4th house. I was thinking of a colour similar to that?

I prefer sixth row down second along - I think it is a bit lighter and brighter. Personal taste tho innit and the one I like might make woodwork look as bit yellowy

The pic looks to me like it is spar-dash (usually pink and white small sharp-edged crushed stones). It is quite common in East London where the houses may have been built of soft yellow brick that has degraded with exposure to the weather.

It looks to me like the house matches the others in the terrace.

Some buyers, like me, will be conscious that if you paint a wall once, you will have to carry on painting it for ever, whereas brick or render does not need to be painted. Others, like me, will think that a terrace looks better if it not broken up into different colours. Some will like the colour of paint you choose, and some won't.

Opinions will differ.

To me freshly painted would look like the property is cared for - I would pick a colour that is a neautral version of the darkest colour in the pebble dash

Hmm, I think 3rd row down 4th along is still quite brown-y (though not seen it in the flesh)

I like the slightly paler less browny colours eg second row from bottom, far left.

I have always wondered why pebbledash exists - what is the benefit of it?

Ours just collects spiders webs and the vermin man from the council tells me rodenst (eek!) can run straight up it.

rodents

It's most often to cover up brickwork that has perished and spalled. That'll be the reason forthe house in the link.

Occasionally it is a regional style, put on a wall which for some reason is not made of proper bricks, or to mimic a traditional building method. When applied at original build, it is usually for first-floor and above, so people walking by the house will not knock into it (it is inclined to fall off, and spar-dash is sharp).

BTW if you use a modern paint on a render, it will most often prevent water evaporating off the wall surface, so the wall will be more damp. This is especially a problem with older, non-cavity walls, like the house in the link.

Well my house is a council house, they are all done up in full pebbledash, I wonder if they started off like that in the 1930's or if it was a repair job?

btw the goat is kept on a tether out the front

some estates of older council houses in and around London were done in pebbledash from new, it might have been a style that was popular at the time. AFAIK in the 1930's there was no particular shortage of good quality bricks or skilled bricklayers. Pebbledash or render is not usually applied over good brickwork.

I've got a 20's pebble dashed council house too

Believe me a lick of paint isn't going to alter the breathability of the render in this instance. Permeable it ain't

Hmm I'd love to see pics of these houses when they were new. In fact it's probably easy to do so as most of my neighbours have lived here since they were built.

Sorry OP for derailing your thread.

My abiding memory of Liverpool is when a house at the end of the street was stripped of its pebble dash and we admired the brickwork and how handsome it looked. And then they slapped it back on! I'd say they look mildly better when painted than with the original mousy colour.