external
Pebbledash, Tyrolean and removal
Pebbledash costs £50 to £80 per square metre applied, and £25 to £45 per square metre to remove. Rendering over sound pebbledash is usually cheaper than hacking it off, and tapping the wall is what decides which you are paying for.
What this covers
What it costs. Pebbledash costs £50 to £80 per square metre applied and £25 to £45 to remove. Full cost breakdown.
What the job covers
- Hacking off failed pebbledash back to the brick
- Rendering over sound pebbledash with a thin-coat system
- Patching a blown section to match the existing aggregate
- Applying a Tyrolean finish by machine
- Dashing a new extension to match the original house
What is involved
Pebbledash is a wet render with aggregate thrown onto it while it is still green, so the stone is held in the coat rather than stuck to the surface. Tyrolean is the machine-applied cousin, flicked on with a hand-cranked hopper to give a finer texture. Both were used at scale on interwar and postwar housing because they weatherproof a wall cheaply and hide a multitude of brickwork.
The modern question is almost always removal. Pebbledash has gone out of fashion, it is hard to repair invisibly because the aggregate is never the same twice, and it fails in patches when water gets behind it. Taking it off is heavy, dusty work that often takes some of the brick face with it, and what is underneath is frequently not a wall you would want to leave exposed.
So the usual answer is to render over it. A sound, well keyed pebbledash is an excellent base for a thin-coat system, and the texture disappears under the basecoat. Anything hollow has to come off first, and if enough is hollow the job becomes a hack-off whatever you wanted.
Hacking off failed pebbledash back to the brick, one of the jobs a pebbledash specialist is hired for.
Choosing someone for the job
Ask them to tap the wall and tell you what they heard. Ask whether the quote is to remove or to render over, and what triggers a change from one to the other once they start. Ask who takes the waste away and whether a skip is in the price. And ask what happens if the brickwork underneath turns out to be poor.
Common questions
Can you render over pebbledash?
Yes, if it is sound and well keyed, and it is usually the cheaper answer. The texture disappears under a basecoat. Tap it first: anything hollow has to come off.
How much does it cost to remove pebbledash from a house?
£25 to £45 per square metre for the removal alone, plus scaffold and waste, plus whatever finish goes on afterwards. A whole semi removed and rendered is typically £7,000 to £13,000.