Pebbledash

[stonecircle]

Our house (an extended semi) is pebbledashed and I hate it so much. Neighbours have had all theirs stripped off and the walls plastered andn painted - looks really good. I don't know how much it would cost (a lot I'm assuming?) but I'm wondering if painting it would be simpler and improve the look? It's a sort of grey/white/brown mix and I was thinking of a cream paint to lift the look of the house. Anyone done this? Is it easy? Does it look ok?

Most of the cost will be removing the old render, if you can bare using a hammer chisel and strip the render off yourself you will save quite a bit. New render from likes of manufactures like weber come pre coloured and don't need painting also is a wide range of different colours. You will find that there are alot of renderers from Eastern Europe can do the job and a really good job aswell

Oh and be carefully with smooth/flat finishes, these can look great, but can crack easily and then stand out a mile and are hard to rectify, I prefer the rough cast finish which if it does crack it's not obvious, very popular on more traditional looking houses and would work well replacing people dash and maintenance free if you get pre coloured.

Be careful taking peddle dash off yourself, you don't want to damage the brickwork underneath.

and have a look at building regs. we were thinking of rendering the north side of the house but can't without putting insulation on.

Our pebble dashed house (victorian terrace) looked loads better when we painted it. At the time we couldn't justify the cost of a full removal job.

That's good to know MrsP. Ours is a 40s/50s extended semi but neighbouring houses do look much better without the pebble dash. I find it difficult to justify the cost as well and thought maybe painting might be a happy compromise. Thouogh doing anything would necessitate stripping off the ivy at the front which softens the overall look anyway and removing the grape vines which grow against the back of the house.

Just be aware that it will get grubby as dirt gets trapped around the pebbles.
Paint over pebbledash is one of those things people do for a quick sale.

I believe there are companies that repair pebbledash and then put a long lasting top coat on it in the colour of your choice. I think this can look great and is more in keeping with the original design should cost less than total removal. What if the bricks underneath are poor quality? They can look awful and require repointing and cleaning.