Rendering Over Pebbledash – Smoothing Out Pebbledash

Pebbledash was popular in the post-war years and it can be a very hard wearing exterior surface. It was often used to cover up unsightly repairs or as a cheaper alternative to re-pointing. However, in today’s world, it gives a very dated and drab appearance and we get hundreds of enquiries from customers asking us what can be done to improve the appearance of their pebbledash homes.

Most of our customers want a smooth finish or they want to considerably reduce the texture of their pebbledash, spar dash or roughcast (please visit our render types page to read more the different types of render). These surfaces can be rendered over but the existing render needs to be very soundly adhered. We test the condition of the existing pebbledash and if there are areas that are not adequately adhered they must be hacked off and repaired. There would also be a lot of cleaning and preparation work required to ensure any render applied will bond successfully. If a quarter of a wall or more needs to be hacked off then under current building regulations the insulation of the wall needs to be upgraded.

When hacking off soundly adhered existing render it is possible for the underlying brickwork to become damaged. In this situation, we would remove the render as sympathetically as possible but there is always a risk that damage could occur and the better adhered the render is and the softer the underlying brickwork is the higher the risk of potential damage. This damage can be fixed by individually cutting out bricks and putting in new ones but this can be time-consuming work that can significantly add to the cost.

Scaffolding would need to be erected on properties with two storey’s or more so that any repairs and preparation work required can be carried out thoroughly and the new render can be applied correctly.

There are a range of different renders and finishes that we can apply and a vast range of colour options. Render samples can be viewed and we can discuss the different options you may have if you book an appointment to receive a free quotation.

Please visit our case studies page to view more rendering projects.