House in Ivybridge newly painted

A house exterior makeover; before and after in Ivybridge, South Devon

If you live in a pebbledashed house there comes a time where you just simply get sick of the sight of it.

After all, it may be maintenance free but it looks awful. What if you could have a maintenance free exterior but the house looks great from the outside?

I’m pleased to tell you that is completely possible, and here is an example of our work to prove that statement.

Here is what we did to a house in Ivybridge, South Devon, to enhance it and improve it’s appearance.

The big problem with pebbledash is it looks awful. Dull, uninspiring and uninteresting.

It is the backdrop to your garden and outside space so why shouldn’t it benefit from a bit of a makeover?

You can’t just get a pot of paint and brush and paint it as the end result will be far from what you imagined. Which is where we come in.

Our exterior textured wall coatings are specifically designed to enhance, beautify and protect pebbledashed houses, and the painting system comes with a 20 year guarantee too.

Here is the house before we started work.

dull grey pebbledash on a house in Ivybridge

Yes it’s a nice, modern and spacious house, but it doesn’t exactly look its best does it?

On a cold, crisp February our Plymouth office sent a team out to come to this homeowners rescue.

After unloading the van of tools and equipment, we set to work on the exterior walls.

side and rear of pebbledashed house

The house was actually in fairly good condition, it would have been a quality build when new, but being on the foothills of Dartmoor, it can certainly be challenged with some of the wintry weather the area is known for.

After the scaffolding had been erected (By a local company) we examined the exterior walls in detail for signs of defects but thankfully there were very few, just one or two minor cracks, which we attended to and that was about it.

That is a refreshing change from some of the horror stories we turn up to paint, those requiring removing all the render and reinstating it for example, it’s hard, dirty work, so it was nice to be presented with a house already in good order.

gable end of pebbledashed house

There is a certain method we use in applying our wall coatings to paint the exterior of a pebbledashed house, it is not the same as painting a house with smooth walls, which incidentally is much easier!

The first thing we do is cover the doors and windows with brown masking paper to avoid any mess.

We then lay dust sheets down on paths and also cover up any trees, bushes or plants near to the house, we certainly don’t want to ruin anyone’s garden whilst the work takes place.

Masked up and applying bagging to rear of house

One this stage is completed, we mix up a bonded cement slurry, known as bagging, and then hand brush this mixture onto the walls.

This slightly smooths out the very rough textured finish of pebbledash and acts as a wall primer, ready for the next coat, which is a resin based primer, which dries to an off-white colour.

The primer is an essential stage of the process, in fact much of each job we undertake, the prep work is a large part of the overall process in transforming the exterior walls.

Here we see one end of the house having had its primer added

Primer being added to walls

We then wait a day for the primer to dry and then set up our spraying machine.

The only effective way to paint the outside of a pebbledashed house is by using a spray method. If we used brushes or rollers we would be here for months trying to achieve a good finish. This job was done and dusted in 4 days, in winter.

That is one advantage we have over your traditional local painter.

This is because much of the masonry paint available today is water based.

Yep, it is simply coloured water, and a rip off at that, especially as masonry paint needs to be renewed every couple of years, but our wall coating system is resin based and specially designed to last over 20 years!

In addition, it can be painted onto the house in temperatures as low as minus 5, something masonry paint cannot do.

We then start spraying the wall coating onto the house, one reason we always mask up the windows, or overspray would occur and we do not want to spend an extra week cleaning paint off the windows!

spraying the wall coating using a top fed hopper gun

The above photo shows our man using a top-fed hopper spray gun to apply the coating.

This is the preferred method to paint pebbledash and the spray ensures every inch of wall is covered with a durable, weatherproof wall coating.

The wall coating is guaranteed for 2 decades to NOT fade, crack, chip or peel, and if your home suffers from damp, it will cure that too.

Here is what the house looks like now.

wall coating applied
Looks a lot better does it not?

A pity the scaffolding was still up for us to take the “after” images, but we couldn’t wait for them, we had another job to be getting on with.

Here is the gable end now fully weatherproofed with Wethertex MP44 exterior wall coating

gable end painted with a new wall coating

Once the walls were finished, we hand painted the plinth at the base of the wall in a matt black finish, to complement the exterior.

This is a lengthy and rigorous process in order to provide an exterior paint finish which will last for 20 years, but it is not as expensive as many people think.

If you live anywhere in England or Wales, you too can benefit form this system, making huge savings over time in lowering heating bills and eliminating yearly repainting.

For prices, give us a call on 0800 970 4928

You can also email us here.

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