Colour to paint render?

[paulb33]

SORRY! I'm still banging on about our 1901 roughcast render.

It seems it was originally unpainted sand cement/lime. Then, it was overpainted with buff, yellow and finally brilliant white.

That said, it looks white in the architect's own drawing from the 1903 Academy Exhibition. Admittedly, this is black & white and so isn't necessarily an accurate representation.

Regardless of historical colours, what do folks think works best?

The render must tie together various elements. Grey lias stone at ground floor, orange bricks with limestone stills at first floor and red clay rosemary roof tiles. Bargeboards, soffits and rainwater goods are all chocolate brown. Windows are two-tone: frames are chocolate brown, sashes off-white. We know with certainty these were first colours used on these various elements.

White is the favoured colour for these turn of the century houses. But, I think its over-powering and clashes with the orange. Instead, I'm minded towards a buff-beigey colour.

Of course, this is subjective. I just don't have a good eye for this stuff. Value any opinions folks can provide.

Thanks again.

Paul

www.redhouserestoration.wordpress.com

 

[plasticpigeon]

To me it looks pretty good as it is now, a golden sandy colour. The original architects sketch shows the render very slightly golden doesn't it? All the colours are pretty washed out so it could be indicating unpainted roughcast. I always think natural finishes look better and weather better than paint, although I have no idea how lime wash weathers.

 

[paulb33]

To me it looks pretty good as it is now, a golden sandy colour.

Thanks, PP. Really appreciate your input. Yes, the architect's water colour shows a light golden colour. How much this is ageing of the water colour is unclear.

A lot of folks have said it looks better already. Ironic, given that close up the render is a mess of residual paint finishes. This I take to be endorsement of the golden brown.

Do a Google Image search on these Edwardian houses and seemingly EVERY ONE WITHOUT EXCEPTION now has a bright white painted render above red brick. I lack the confidence breaking this convention.

Trouble is, I need to do so much patching and reinstating that painting seems the best option. So, its whether a light brown tinted limewash will work in this situation.

 

[malcolm]

I should guess it was originally unpainted as you suggest. Turns out mine was. If you like the unpainted look it should be possible to clean off the remaining paint trapped in the deep bits with Solvistrip and a pressure washer without damage to the render. Will take a couple of days and £100 of stripper. Though as soon as you sell the place it's going to be painted a cream colour as seems to be the fashion.

I'm not sure trying to match the render colour with paint will work as you'll lose some of the texture and colour variation. A lighter colour if you go with paint. Mine is probably going to end up cream.

 

[paulb33]

Will take a couple of days and £100 of stripper. Mine is probably going to end up cream.

Thanks, Malcolm. What you see below, is the result of $2k steam cleaning and £100 of solvistrip.





There's still a lot of residual distemper-like paint left. But, we've restored the texture.

The original roughcast, was wet-cast. So, the cement/sand/lime vehicle probably coated all the stones. So, more conducive to replication with paint than dry pebbledash?Apparently, Beeckosil is more of a stain than a paint - preserving the texture. Its just that its expensive and a PIA to apply.

Tell me more about your own render. Why are you going cream?

 

[malcolm]

I don't know exactly what I'm doing with my render at the moment. It is an Edwardian concrete render inside a structural mock tudor frame, originally unpainted but currently in waterproof magnolia. The paint is in reasonable condition so I'll likely paint over it in a more bearable colour.

 

[plasticpigeon]

How about a shelter coat. I believe it is a limewash with some sand or stone dust in it. I think it is used over stonework, especially when repaired to even the colour out. I am planning to use one when I repair the stonework on my place. It might be worth investigating, or perhaps you could even make your own sand/cement or sand/lime shelter coat.

http://www.limebase.co.uk/index.php?page=sheltercoat

 

[paulb33]

How about a shelter coat. I believe it is a limewash with some sand or stone dust in it. I think it is used over stonework, especially when repaired to even the colour out. I am planning to use one when I repair the stonework on my place. It might be worth investigating, or perhaps you could even make your own sand/cement or sand/lime shelter coat.

http://www.limebase.co.uk/index.php?page=sheltercoat

That's a bloody marvellous suggestion, PP. I'll be Googling this tonight. Thank you!

 

[paulb33]

So, I'm reading that I can limewash with a tinted sand/cement/stonedust/aggregate to give the nice granular, natural finish. That should approximate to an unpainted render finish. Thanks again to PP for this priceless tip.

That brings me back to my original question. Would a light golden finish suit the house? Or, should I go for the 'safe' option: a cream/magnolia?

Cheers again,

Paul

 

[88v8]

Paint sits on, limewash sinks in. And if the substrata are uneven, it will take many coats to achieve uniformity, with no guarantee that it will weather evenly. Could end up like our Pug 205, nine shades of red. So I think PP's suggestion of limewash + body could be worth pursuing.

I'd go with golden, although I would say that of course as our previous house with its 1920s applied mock Tudor was done in golden pebble and never painted.

Ivor

 

[paulb33]

Paint sits on, limewash sinks in. And if the substrata are uneven, it will take many coats to achieve uniformity, with no guarantee that it will weather evenly. Could end up like our Pug 205, nine shades of red. So I think PP's suggestion of limewash + body could be worth pursuing.

I'd go with golden, although I would say that of course as our previous house with its 1920s applied mock Tudor was done in golden pebble and never painted.

Ivor

Thanks, Ivor. Appreciate your input. Another vote for golden limewash is registered.

 

[Zebra]

I'm not knowledgeable enough about houses of this era to give an informed opinion, but it's hard to see what other colour would look right other than goldybeige. Cream, yes, maybe, but that's getting towards the painted-on, un-natural look that you're trying to avoid, and if you want to tie in the other elements, the grey, the brick, the chocolate brown, then it has to be something quite muted, I would say. I would suggest buying a tester pot of limewash pigment for about a fiver from Ty Mawr (I've found the postage is cheaper if you phone them up rather than buying online, for some reason), and mixing up a bit of limewash and trying it, perhaps just on a bit of board leaned up against the wall rather than on the wall itself. You need to give it time to dry before making a judgement, because the colour goes a lot paler when it dries. You also need to apply quite a few layers of it to get the full effect, because it's quite transparent at first but ends up very opaque, so it looks like a paint rather than a textured render, if you know what I mean.

 

[paulb33]

I'm not knowledgeable enough about houses of this era to give an informed opinion, but it's hard to see what other colour would look right other than goldybeige. Cream, yes, maybe, but that's getting towards the painted-on, un-natural look that you're trying to avoid, and if you want to tie in the other elements, the grey, the brick, the chocolate brown, then it has to be something quite muted, I would say. I would suggest buying a tester pot of limewash pigment for about a fiver from Ty Mawr (I've found the postage is cheaper if you phone them up rather than buying online, for some reason), and mixing up a bit of limewash and trying it, perhaps just on a bit of board leaned up against the wall rather than on the wall itself. You need to give it time to dry before making a judgement, because the colour goes a lot paler when it dries. You also need to apply quite a few layers of it to get the full effect, because it's quite transparent at first but ends up very opaque, so it looks like a paint rather than a textured render, if you know what I mean.

Excellent recommendation, Zebra. Thank you. And another vote for gold/beige.

I appreciate everyone's opinions. I'm risking the neighbours wrath in not repainting it white. "What the blazes colour is he painting that house, Doris?" Its also going to be quite an effort to paint this render, so want to get it right first time. :roll:

 

[malcolm]

Another vote for gold. Breathable paint makes sense even on concrete render. Render will never breathe much but the paint will be much easier to manage when it fails and water gets behind it. I'm sure the neighbours will be used to the gold colour by now.

Do post about the system when you get the test sections how you like.

 

[paulb33]

I'm sure the neighbours will be used to the gold colour by now.

Good point, Malcolm. They'll just be glad to see the scaffolding gone.... That's assuming we have the same neighbours when this saga is over.

 

[Zebra]

It's not like you're painting it blue. But I know what you mean in not wanting to upset the neighbours. I imagine mine think something similar: "What on earth is that woman up to now? And when is she going to clean up the bleeding garden?"

 

[paulb33]

It's not like you're painting it blue.

That's true. The blues haven't been able to get their vote out...yet.