Pebbledash to render

[Noony1992]

Hi all

I'm looking on knocking off all the pebbledash off my house and to render it eventually what would be the best way to do this the render will be done by my cousin who is a plasterer but my main concern is removing the pebbledash not knowing what the condition will be like underneath and advice will be greatly appreciated

Thanks

Shaun

 

[dann09]

There's no knowing what condition the background is in until the cover has been removed.

Best & safest way is to erect scaffold and work off the lifts.The scaff can then be used for spreading the render.

Knock off using a hired "Kango" hammer with chisel steel.
Use an RCD on the power supply - test that the cut out works.

While the scaff is up take care of all other high level maintenance.

 

[Noony1992]

Thanks mate our house is and end terrace of 4 with 1 being knocked down already due to subsidence and the next one with about a 4 inch crack in the wall the woman who lives there can see through the hole and fit her hand through so if the subsidence is pulling the houses down do you think painting would be the best option for now ?

 

[roy c]

If you are going to "kango" dash off, and it's on brickwork you have a good chance of taking the face off the bricks if it was put on right in the first place. If it is sound then you maybe able to render over the top if it's not painted. ( You could still render over painted dash but it involves a lot more prepping) Get your cousin around to give you his opinion especially if he is gonna render it for you..

 

[Noony1992]

It's plain pebbledash no paint work done on it but there are a few cracks

 

[stevethespreader]

then you maybe able to render over the top if it's not painted. ( You could still render over painted dash but it involves a lot more prepping) Get your cousin around to give you his opinion especially if he is gonna render it for you..

hi roy I was on holiday last week up blackpool where the rendering looks a lot better than down south but I came across came across a small village and I couldent resist taking this picture to the amusement of the neighbour he wondered what I was up to so I told him this is an interesting pic, the pebbledash was rendered over and has blown im not sure its a good idea to render over pebble dash but your more of a render expert than me roy looks like the pebbledash is sound yet the render failed , any thought on it? surly all it would take is a couple of loose stones for the render to fail?View media item 64708

 

[dann09]

roy c,

I take your point about spalling the brickwork, but, depending on the original condition of the b/work, if its on real tight then using either kango or hammer and bolster will possibly crack the face off.

Some cement heavy renders wont budge without persuasion, but your point's a good one, & i hadn't thought of it when i posted.

But FWIW: I've never encounterd "clean" b/work after render has been removed.

Steve,

Good points as well, your pic of failing backing, and observation: "a couple of loose stones for the render to fail" got me thinking a little harder.

Personally, i've never rendered over dash, and i'm wondering what happens at reveals if the S&C has to be pulled out to make it look respectable? Most of my "rendering" has actually been damp work.

So i'd be interested roy, in what other points you can make to educate me a bit more.

 

[dann09]

Noony,

why not try and post a few pics of the terrace and your house?
If there's any structural instability then all bets are off, because you might be wasting your time and your money.

Post in the building forum, and discuss in more detail your structural fears.

Given what you describe painting isn't going to help.

 

[Noony1992]

Ill get a few pics up within a few days busy with work 12 hour shifts :/ but once I can ill upload them

 

[roy c]

You have to take into account a lot of things before you render over dash. First of all how thick will the final coat be in relation to drain-pipes, windows, fascia boards and fixings to the wall. Also how sound the dash is that you are rendering over, you would have to power wash it and check if any areas are boxy. But also the most important part is to get a good key for the render to adhere to. As in a sbr slurry coat or diamond patterns put in with a grinder or a "scut" mix thrown on, It is more feasible to do flat areas like the gable that steve showed. If you have soffits on the house and a wide frame on the windows it would be a lot easier but you would still have to change pipe work and brackets and un-clip cables to allow for the extra thickness of render. Sometimes more so the further north you go you will find a lot of areas where the houses have been dashed to allow for the bad weather as the dash will disperse water far better than flat render. Also the preferred render in remote areas would always be dash, (when I say dash, that includes stucco, pebble, shell, spar, or anything else that gets thrown onto a render base..) Like all things it is sometimes better to not fix them if it's not broken, but different people want different things and as fashion and ideas change over the years people will want you to do things that are not always right for the buildings. But you explain to them and advise them of the pros and cons and at the end of the day the decision lies with them. Now I have got older I don't do a lot of the work that I would of taken on when I was younger .And as for all this "new" acrylic stuff that is being thrown on, well. Time will tell...

 

[Skimmers]

if its 90% sound then just take out whats blown patch up with OCR then prima the wall then over coat the lot with OCR then top with a thin coat render bucket coat Acrylic top coat.
This way its still thin but has a good clean sharp finish and not a lot of weight on there
half time half cost and look sexy

 

[dann09]

roy and skimmers,

Thanks a lot. You guys certainly know your rendering. Old school & new school. Thats a clever method you describe, skimmers, & a full and clear account from you roy.
My limited external rendering has been just to rub up, and Tyrolean. And a little patchwork.

After reviewing your advice roy and skimmers, and considering steve's input, i would still swerve going over dash.
I hate the thought of a bit of backing being blown, or some kind of "whatever" loosening some stone.
And the dreary business of patching a call back where i might disturb some more stone etc. ... I'm lacking.

 

[roy c]

roy and skimmers,

Thanks a lot. You guys certainly know your rendering. Old school & new school. Thats a clever method you describe, skimmers, & a full and clear account from you roy.
My limited external rendering has been just to rub up, and Tyrolean. And a little patchwork.

After reviewing your advice roy and skimmers, and considering steve's input, i would still swerve going over dash.
I hate the thought of a bit of backing being blown, or some kind of "whatever" loosening some stone.
And the dreary business of patching a call back where i might disturb some more stone etc. ... I'm lacking.

Check out my albums there is a few pics of patching dash on them...

 

[dann09]

roy,

Great collection of snaps. I wish that i'd had the forethought to do the same.

I have a few of a younger me running some solid moulding, and doing rubber mouldings on the bench, and some curved decorative work with lime putty - i dont mind curved work, but i hate lime putty and decorative stuff, and will only step in to do a little making good etc. For me, waste of time learning it.

Your pics of banded render (what i call ashlar render) are great, i've done a little of that.

Story i heard of posh ashlaring in Mayfair, London being spread in a cement heavy mix, and painted in white plastic paint - within a couple of winters the interiors were weeping, and the whole lot eventually had to be redone with a lime mix. Maybe a building trade myth, but!

The way you finished off the dash patching is impressive. Both you and steve (& skimmers?) appear to be one man bands? God knows how you do it?

 

[roy c]

Thanks for the compliments dan I and my mate (who was a cabinet maker carpenter) worked together for 30 years and he had to go back over to Belfast a few years ago for family reasons. So now I work with a brick layer but we do a lot of property maintainance and both can turn our hands to most things. We used to have 4 men working for us at the time when we did that building up with the Ashlar render and we were there for quite a while, we completely gutted the building and re built all the inside and were going to put an extension on the back but the company next door objected to the plans so the guy we were working for just pulled the plug and the job finished after I rendered the outside, It is still empty now and that was nearly ten years ago!!! But I am still working for the same guy doing maintainance on his properties and garages that he has,The problem with being committed to one man is that I have to refuse a lot of work from old customers as I am tied up with his work. But the work gets passed on to other lads I know so everyone is happy