What colours to paint my (Victorian, pebbled-dash) house?

What colours to paint my (Victorian, pebbled-dash) house?

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somejohn

Original Poster:

45 posts

148 months

Wednesday 27th July 2016
quotequote all
Our house is a late-1800s Victorian terraced house - one of tens of thousands of virtually-identical houses that seem to form a ring around Zone 3.

Since we bought it we've done a lot of work to the house, but later this year we're undertaking a series of cosmetic improvements: fix the garden, replace the staircase, re-plaster and redecorate downstairs..

The biggy, though, is the outside of the house which is pebble-dashed, and which I intend to have painted. If sustained bomb damage during the war so underneath is a combination of yellow London bricks, breeze blocks, and red bricks. There's no feasible way of stripping it off and re-pointing. We did look at the option of rendering the walls smooth but the cost is still prohibitively expensive. So, paint it is!

Despite the pebble-dashing it still retains a lot of the lovely original external stone/plasterworks around the bay and windows (which will be sanded and brought back to former glory as part of the works on the exterior of the house) - including the original inner-edges of the window surrounds.

The intention is to use two different shades of paint outside: one for the walls themselves, and another for these features. Our builder has recommended Dulux Weathershield, and SWMBO has demanded no shades of grey, so I'm now stuck trying to work out what colours to use.

I wondered about a muted green for the walls and crisp white for the features, but I'd be lying if I didn't say part of the intentions with all this work is - in a couple of years - to improve our prospects of selling again so green might not be the best choice.

So, what do you think? What colours should I be painting my house?





dxg

8,121 posts

259 months

8-P

2,756 posts

259 months

Wednesday 27th July 2016
quotequote all
Remove the pebble dash, back to brick :-)

KTF

9,788 posts

149 months

Wednesday 27th July 2016
quotequote all
Isn't that going to be a massive pain in the ass to paint trying to get it good coverage in between the stones?

kiethton

13,883 posts

179 months

Wednesday 27th July 2016
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I'd go back to brick (with a thorough clean/blast) but if that's not possible/wanted I'd maybe look at an off white grey/petroleum colour

LaurasOtherHalf

21,429 posts

195 months

Wednesday 27th July 2016
quotequote all
Muted green and white does look nice, are there any other houses with painted pebbledash in the vicinity? A very muted lemon yellow looks nice too

somejohn

Original Poster:

45 posts

148 months

Wednesday 27th July 2016
quotequote all
8-P said:
Remove the pebble dash, back to brick :-)
kiethton said:
I'd go back to brick (with a thorough clean/blast)
I wish it were possible to go back to brick. Ignoring how prohibitively expensive it is (our cheapest quote was £7,000), underneath that pebbledash is a mosaic of original London yellow brick, breeze blocks, and red bricks.. It would not be the most attractive thing to unveil (although admittedly still more attractive than the pebbledash!)


somejohn

Original Poster:

45 posts

148 months

Wednesday 27th July 2016
quotequote all
LaurasOtherHalf said:
Muted green and white does look nice, are there any other houses with painted pebbledash in the vicinity? A very muted lemon yellow looks nice too
There's lots and lots of painted pebbledash houses in the area: some of them seemingly better done (or more recently) than others! They are mainly either magnolia, or lemony-yellow (which looks good, perhaps not quite to my tastes though)

The safe choice would be to paint the walls white, and use magnolia for the features/surrounds but it feels a little 'safe'.

There's a muted-green-and-white house I walk past every day on my way into work. Admittedly it's a totally different style, era, and not pebbledash.. but I wonder if this might work quite well. As I say though: last thing we want to do it spend all this money and end up putting potential future buyers off!


freakynessless

473 posts

181 months

Wednesday 27th July 2016
quotequote all
I used Dulux Weathershield to paint our pebble-dashed house 9 years ago. Good paint, but the process of painting pebble-dash is a massive ballache. It needs doing again to be honest and I'm putting it off as long as I possibly can!
Most of the house was already painted - badly and it hadn't been done for years. There was also a section where our porch had been added which hadn't been painted at all. Both required two coats for a decent finish. You may also want to look at using a stabiliser too depending on the condition of your walls.
In terms of colour we went for County Cream, but that may not be to your taste.

somejohn

Original Poster:

45 posts

148 months

Wednesday 27th July 2016
quotequote all
freakynessless said:
I used Dulux Weathershield to paint our pebble-dashed house 9 years ago. Good paint, but the process of painting pebble-dash is a massive ballache. It needs doing again to be honest and I'm putting it off as long as I possibly can!
Most of the house was already painted - badly and it hadn't been done for years. There was also a section where our porch had been added which hadn't been painted at all. Both required two coats for a decent finish. You may also want to look at using a stabiliser too depending on the condition of your walls.
In terms of colour we went for County Cream, but that may not be to your taste.
I'd love to see how it turned out if you have a photo to share? I know that painted exteriors come with some additional maintenance needs, so fully prepared to paint it again in the future should it need it. We're very lucky in that we have a really excellent local handyman/building firm who are going to undertake the work (a minimum two coats with stabiliser included) at a reasonable cost - I helped a friend paint his pebble-dash a few years ago.. I know the pain all too well!

8-P

2,756 posts

259 months

Wednesday 27th July 2016
quotequote all
Just painted my garage inside. Some of the breeze blocks were quite rough, probably a similar bumpyness to your pebble dash. It will be an utter bh of a job, dont even think about doing it yourself !

MGTS

326 posts

217 months

Wednesday 27th July 2016
quotequote all
Haven't a clue what the answer is but can you render over pebble dash?

Edit sorry just re read original post. It may however save costs in the long run to re render if you don't have to spend so much time and money painting it

matty g

231 posts

197 months

Wednesday 27th July 2016
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Painting will be an ass of a job. Although spraying MAY be an alternative

BlueHave

4,636 posts

107 months

Wednesday 27th July 2016
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I painted my walls Sandtex Plymouth Grey which came out better than I expected.

A lot of the Farrow and Ball Masonry colours are very nice although the cost will be at least double compared with Dulux and Sandbox.

Actually looks a lot lighter than this in the flesh.


911Alan

92 posts

142 months

Wednesday 27th July 2016
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I spent nearly a week painting my pebble dashed house. I was ready to kill myself by the end of it laugh Horrible job!

princeperch

7,911 posts

246 months

Thursday 28th July 2016
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I've just painted the outside of our lean to utility room in farrow and ball pigeon no 25 and it looks great.

Quite a few people in our streets have had their pebble dashed house painted by the same bloke, and all of them look pretty smart imo

If you did decide to go back to brick and then replace the errant bricks, the cheapest quote you will get is from the Essex brickwork company in Brentwood. They've done loads of houses in our street and I think they charge about 1500 quid give or take to do the front.

Edited by princeperch on Thursday 28th July 08:20

squicky

271 posts

179 months

Thursday 28th July 2016
quotequote all
I painted mine using generic wickes exterior white paint. It was an awful job to do and I was cursing the previous house owner who decided that rendering the lovely victorian bricks with that stoney rubbish was a 'good' idea.

Again the cost of removing it and making good the bricks/pointing after removal meant painting was the 'easiest' solution for me.

somejohn

Original Poster:

45 posts

148 months

Thursday 28th July 2016
quotequote all
princeperch said:
If you did decide to go back to brick and then replace the errant bricks, the cheapest quote you will get is from the Essex brickwork company in Brentwood. They've done loads of houses in our street and I think they charge about 1500 quid give or take to do the front.
That sounds remarkably cheap! Thanks for the headsup, I've dropped them an email. Given what we know about what lurks beneath the pebble-dash (ie: front should be original and sound), I'm now wondering whether it's worth stripping the 'dash from the front of the house, and then simply painting it at the rear.. Something along these lines:



Harry Flashman

19,282 posts

241 months

Thursday 28th July 2016
quotequote all
somejohn said:
LaurasOtherHalf said:
Muted green and white does look nice, are there any other houses with painted pebbledash in the vicinity? A very muted lemon yellow looks nice too
There's lots and lots of painted pebbledash houses in the area: some of them seemingly better done (or more recently) than others! They are mainly either magnolia, or lemony-yellow (which looks good, perhaps not quite to my tastes though)

The safe choice would be to paint the walls white, and use magnolia for the features/surrounds but it feels a little 'safe'.

There's a muted-green-and-white house I walk past every day on my way into work. Admittedly it's a totally different style, era, and not pebbledash.. but I wonder if this might work quite well. As I say though: last thing we want to do it spend all this money and end up putting potential future buyers off!

That green house is lovely.

There's one near me that has been done in an olive green, with black windows with white recesses/sills. It looks superb. We are doing something similar with the (ugly modern extension) rear of our 1930's house.

princeperch

7,911 posts

246 months

Thursday 28th July 2016
quotequote all
somejohn said:
princeperch said:
If you did decide to go back to brick and then replace the errant bricks, the cheapest quote you will get is from the Essex brickwork company in Brentwood. They've done loads of houses in our street and I think they charge about 1500 quid give or take to do the front.
That sounds remarkably cheap! Thanks for the headsup, I've dropped them an email. Given what we know about what lurks beneath the pebble-dash (ie: front should be original and sound), I'm now wondering whether it's worth stripping the 'dash from the front of the house, and then simply painting it at the rear.. Something along these lines:


http://www.essexbrickworkandrepointing.co.uk/gallery-of-work/

this is the link. one of my neighbours who is a good friend is in their gallery . if you want the exact address so you can go and look in person pm me.