Repairing and painting lime pebbledash for the first time

[justanotherrosecottage]

Hi everyone,

I've a 1927 pebbledashed house, I think the dash may be original and lime (photo below!). Cracks in the dash have previously been filled with some kind of pink putty, there are a few more which need filling and due to various repairs and a window being filled in, I think it's sadly time for the dash to be painted.

I've been trying to figure out what the best paint to use would be? I'd most like to use something that needs the least maintenance, and it seems like a silicate masonry paint would be the answer? But I've no experience with this kind of thing, so I'd really appreciate your advice! The walls have a cavity, there has been a bit of damp and it's about half a mile from the coast, and on a fairly busy high street near a level crossing.

I'm thinking of going with something like Earthborn Rose Quartz, as apparently this house was originally called Rose Cottage (as were maybe a dozen other houses in the area!), or a Keim paint.

 

[aockenden]

Ever considered a lime wash?

 

[justanotherrosecottage]

Ever considered a lime wash?

I don't want to have to do it again every couple of years, so I'm preferring a longer term fix! I'm quite hoping someone would say actually the dash could have been matched way better than it has been, and I could get a period property expert in to just fix up the pebbledash right… But I don't think that's likely so as far as I've been able to tell, a silicate paint seems to be the way to go. But very expensive.

 

[malcolm]

It's probably a cement pebbledash if it's 1927. It would be a shame to paint the whole thing especially if maintenance is a worry as you'll not get 100 years out of any paint. That happened to my 1921 pebbledash and it caused problems. On mine they painted it with normal masonry paint which it turns out is quite waterproof. You never get a completely perfect paint finish on an uneven surface and water got into the gaps and cracks and made the wall wet and pushed off the paint.

Definitely go for a breathable paint should you paint the thing. Lime is the most breathable and mine is still good 10 years on, but it needs a lot of coats so is time consuming. I've not used any other exterior paint but others have and a search should bring up ideas.

 

[justanotherrosecottage]

It's probably a cement pebbledash if it's 1927. It would be a shame to paint the whole thing especially if maintenance is a worry as you'll not get 100 years out of any paint. That happened to my 1921 pebbledash and it caused problems. On mine they painted it with normal masonry paint which it turns out is quite waterproof. You never get a completely perfect paint finish on an uneven surface and water got into the gaps and cracks and made the wall wet and pushed off the paint.

Definitely go for a breathable paint should you paint the thing. Lime is the most breathable and mine is still good 10 years on, but it needs a lot of coats so is time consuming. I've not used any other exterior paint but others have and a search should bring up ideas.

Thanks! How would I tell whether it's cement? The mortar between the bricks was lime, then someone later put cement over it which now needs redoing with lime. If the mortar is lime, would the dash be too? I'd thought painting cement dash with unbreathable paint was supposed to be fine, and only an issue with lime, but I only just started researching! There are parts that have been falling off over a bay window, so it needs significant repairs and going by the standard of those that have been done so far it'll look pretty bad unpainted.

Silicate paint is supposed to be very breathable, and an alternative to lime wash so that's where I've ended up. I've seen people claim it will last at least 15 years and sometimes lasts up to 100…

 

[Stevers]

My parents' house (1934) had a lime pebbledash. Painting it with masonry paint (1970s) was a dreadful mistake, and when last seen it was sloughing off in sheets complete with the pebbles.

 

[aockenden]

There’s actually pebble dash out there using lime instead of cement? That’s news to me! I thought it was an entirely post-WW2 technique and always done with cement. Very interesting.

 

[justanotherrosecottage]

There’s actually pebble dash out there using lime instead of cement? That’s news to me! I thought it was an entirely post-WW2 technique and always done with cement. Very interesting.

Apparently the first heyday of pebble dash was around 1890-1930, and cement render only became very widespread after WW2!

 

[Stevers]

Apparently the first heyday of pebble dash was around 1890-1930, and cement render only became very widespread after WW2!

Loosely linked to the Arts and Crafts movement - see also woodchip wallpaper!

Aged pebbledash - impossible to prepare for painting, and paint doesn't last well as a result. As with natural stone, better (and cheaper) to embrace the weathered look - think of it as patina!

 

[justanotherrosecottage]

Loosely linked to the Arts and Crafts movement - see also woodchip wallpaper!

Aged pebbledash - impossible to prepare for painting, and paint doesn't last well as a result. As with natural stone, better (and cheaper) to embrace the weathered look - think of it as patina!

So would I be better off getting a lime plaster expert to fix the little crumbled bits and cracks?

 

[Flyfisher]

I don't want to have to do it again every couple of years, so I'm preferring a longer term fix! I'm quite hoping someone would say actually the dash could have been matched way better than it has been, and I could get a period property expert in to just fix up the pebbledash right… But I don't think that's likely so as far as I've been able to tell, a silicate paint seems to be the way to go. But very expensive.

In my experience, limewash will last a lot longer than a couple of years (though to be fair I'm not sure about pebbledash). I'd say five years is more likely.

Are you contemplating a DIY job of getting someone to do it for you? Limewash is cheap as chips to buy but, as pointed out above, you'll need multiple coats - quite possibly up to 4 or 5 coats on an un-limewashed surface. So, cheap materials but lots of time. Silicate paint is certainly more expensive and (I've read) requires careful preparation but will last a lot longer than limewash and requires fewer coats, so more expensive materials but less time.

Time is cheap for DIY but expensive for a professional, so there's a big tradeoff there. A professional might also want to work from scaffolding so that's an additional cost that a DIYer could avoid if they're prepared to spend all day going up and down a ladder (not fun I can assure you!). And whatever you decide, silicate paint will likely last at least twice as long as limewash, probably longer, so if you factor that in as well then I'm not sure that it would really be "very expensive" overall.

My feeling is that limewash, lovely though it looks, is really a product of a bygone age when labour was dirt-cheap and abundant at certain times of the year. Thus, after harvest time and before the frosts set in, all those farm labourers had little to do and could be set to work limewashing everything on the farm that didn't move. The limewash was cheap and the labourers had nothing else to do anyway, so a quick 'touch up' every year was cheap and effective. I generalise, of course, but times are very different today and labour is far more expensive so all the trade-off calculations are very different.

 

[jamest]

I've had quite positive experiences with Bauwerk Lime paint and Ingilby paints exterior limewash. The latter is more than a basic limewash and can be applied over existing finishes, as can the former. You only need two or maybe three coats at most. They seem to last reasonably well, I'm hoping to get more than 5 years out of mine, maybe 10 (but perhaps that's overly optimistic). Both are more expensive than simple limewash, but neither is as expensive as silicate paint, though Bauwerk are trying to get there by the looks of things.

 

[justanotherrosecottage]

I'm quite DIY-minded, but definitely getting someone to do this professionally. The dash needs repairing and that's beyond me, and I've read that the first coat on pebbledash can be a bit of a nightmare. I think I'll have to look for someone who works exclusively with lime!