Ghastly pebbledashing: what would you do?

[Apostrophe]

We have just bought a lovely terraced house, built 1905, but unfortunately with unsightly outdoor pebbledashing painted a dingy dirty cream. Don't think we can afford to remove it, although the original red brick with contrasting white masonry would be my ideal. I am a sucker for Victoriana and am looking forward to restoring the fireplaces and other nice indoor period features. However, I have never modified the outside of a house before. All i can say for starters is that we need a more subtle door colour than the current royal blue. We nestle in between one red brick house, the way I wish we could have ours, and one that is painted a dark sludgy grey-brown. But ours wins first prize for ghastly, so what would *you* do?!

 

[Keithj]

Do the inside first, as that's the part you'll see most.

If the door colour offends you, buy a pot of a suitable colour and paint it. That's a morning's job.

Pebbledash is a bigger issue. You can chip it off (with the render it's stuck into), but you never know what you may find underneath (been there - had a large chunk of granite-and-cowdung wall fall down). When you're ready, get someone who knows to take a careful look and advise. I doubt you'd easily get back to clean red brick, but experts may know better.

[Tongueincheek] You could always paint the bricks red and the mortar white.[/Tongueincheek]

 

[middi]

Definetely not advisable to remove the existing pebledash, damage will/could occurr on the brickfaces.
If you are unable to create a " key" on the existing pebledash mortar with it's painted surface for another coat of render to be applied you could certainly remove the existing render with a view to re-render and repaint with a colour of your choise. If you are really lucky ( and depending on type of bricks) the mortar may not be stuck too well on the brick faces, you repoint the bricks and get what you like best.

The quickest and cheapest would be to repaint in a colour you prefer other than existing.

Middi

 

[JoceAndChris]

Hello Apostrophe! It's lovely to see you here and a big welcome to our forum; I hope you post lots with all your housey questions.

Good advice above; you've seen what's happened to the stone here with having the render picked off - it isn't happy at all. The pebble dashing might come off the brick easily but it's more likely that you'd have a ruined facade you then wanted to paint. In the fullness of time, you could do a little test patch and make a judgement on it.

There are some wonderful paint colours out there so there's no need to put up with Dingy Cream and Nasty Blue. House White, by FnB, is a lovely, crisp, creamy white, I've used it a lot here, it isn't too white or too yellowy and there's no grey in it either. There are many other possibilities of course, I must find you the link to Nigel's beautiful house in Islington and the work he's done on period colours.

Another possibility is limewash which can apparently sit on top of a non porous finish such as you currently have. I'd phone Rose of Jericho and get them to send their paint charts, which are beautiful. Limewash will create an uneven, mottled finish that's very chalky and period looking, although by all accounts it needs redoing more frequently than modern paint.

I think Victorian doors often were strong reds, blues, or greens but within that there is a whole world of subtle difference. Choose a paint with a lot of natural pigments and if possible get a true oil finish and not the current FnB estate eggshell. I think Rose of Jericho still do proper oil paints.

What are the windows like? We need pics!!

And, I have to ask, what is your view on the old- fashioned use of the apostrophe to indicate missing letters? For example, 'phone.

 

[88v8]

[Tongueincheek] You could always paint the bricks red and the mortar white.[/Tongueincheek]

I've seen that done, although the bricks were powder blue and the mortar pink. :shock: It was like a Barbara Cartland tribute.

Incidentally, it was considered not bad practice when doing 'gauged' work such as a window arch to fill up mortar joints that were dimensionally discordant, fill them up with lime and powdered brick to make a flush face, and then paint a false joint on the brick. Not the whole wall though....

Agree that you probably won't get the pebble off cleanly. And it may be there to conceal past bodges of the brickwork, pipework damage, window alterations.... At best you could re-render it flat, but I fear you may never get return it to the original brickwork.
However.... it will worth carefully hacking a bit off to see. If it was put on the 30s and the base-coat is lime, it may come off to an extent where you could get the rest plastic blasted.

Ivor

 

[Apostrophe]

How marvellous to see so many useful replies when I wasn't sure if anyone would bite! Thanks all! I think the suggestion about doing the inside first is just so right: let the poor neighbours suffer the outdoor view for the time being. But once the indoor improvements are underway perhaps yes I will be brave enough to do a test patch and see what is really under the pebbledashing. Feels like the sort of thing we are always advised to do with hair dyes on our elbow before using, but I could never be bothered - JoceAndChris will know what I mean :wink: I can see I have got a lot to learn about this business... Goodee, a project!

 

[JoceAndChris]

Prioritising the inside is a good idea, as long as there are no obvious leaks or structural things demanding immediate attention. A leaking roof, drain, or gutter can cause awful damage without you even seeing it. Everything needs to be inspected very thoroughly: go up in the loft, look for rot if you have timber windows, see how drains and gutters behave.

Alterations in plumbing and wiring, ( including such non-Victorian luxuries as underfloor heating) should you desire such things, will need to be thought about before paint.

And we will need to be invited to christen the house with lashings of champagne. Xxx

 

[FamilyWiggs]

Welcome to the forum '

You're clearly Joce's alter ego, and I claim my £5!

A chance of some pictures, please? Pretty please?

 

[Nigel Watts]

I agree that it may be impractical to remove the pebbledash without causing serious damage to the underlying brickwork.

Pebbledash is much maligned, but was used by some quite serious architects of the Arts & Crafts school such as Voysey in the early 20thC. I don't believe it was ever intended to be painted but old pebbledash mostly has been.

If I was not able to remove my pebbledash I think I would try to go with the Arts & Crafts look. Many buildings get altered over their life and restoration to their original state is not always possible or even desirable. I think I would try to choose a colour which most closely resembled how it looked like when first applied - a deep cream or stone colour for example (such as F&B's String) - possibly with dark grey or dark brown window frames.

 

[JoceAndChris]

I didn't know pebbledash had such a respectable pedigree - how interesting. Nigel - where's your fab web page of your dark windows and String walls?

Robin, all I can say is you'd better watch those spelling mistakes of yours around Apostrophe. :wink:

 

[Nigel Watts]

web page of your dark windows and String walls?

http://www.fitzwalter.com/house/colours.htm

 

[JoceAndChris]

Thanks Nigel, that's even more fascinating than I remember it. Will you do the same when it has had its stucco repaired? X

 

[michael]

Is it definitely mid to late 20th century pebbledash or could it possibly be early 20th century roughcast in which case it could be original to the building?

 

[Apostrophe]

What £5? Not Joce's alter ego exactly, but a friend from the non-online non-period world. She recommended the forum and she was right! Now if someone can just tell me how to upload a photo I'll be happy to oblige....

 

[FamilyWiggs]

http://www.periodproperty.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=9077&hilit=how+to+post+picture

If not her alter ego, perhaps a Magdalen bridge-jumping chum? In which case, the above instructions should be followed! :wink: