How Pebbledashing is REALLY done!!

[tommyl18]

just something on my mind id thought id find out for once and for all!
ive been rendering for years and my work is always spot on but I was always under the impression that people who couldnt render properly would pebble dash because you didnt have to be to fussy and it was easy id never fancied doing it because i thought it always looked s**t!
However i got this one job a few years back and it was to pebble dash a complete house in canterbury spar nice looking stone to be fair cost a fortune. I got a few lads to give me hand, and we scratched it etc and i researched on the net how to apply it butter coat blar blar blar. Anyway this job when it was finished looked like a patchwork quilt u could see joins in it where the lads at the bottom had met us up on the 1st lift of the scaffold there was bits where the stone hadnt took and it was just bare render, none of it had the deep texture that i had seen on other jobs it was just a very tight coat of stone and u could see more render behind it than anything. To top it all off the stone when it was wet looked great but when it was dry there was no colour in them at all because the render had got onto them right balls up needless to say i lost about £4000 on that job and sworn id never touch pebbledashing again !! stick to what you know! but ive always wanted to know how its done properly and now have a lot of respect for the lads that can do it because done right in a nice stone it can look superb

[roughcaster]

Whether it's rendering or roughcasting, if it's not done propery, especially at the joins, it'll look like a patchwork quilt. With roughcast,, you never dash right down to the wet edge, always about 10 to 12 inches above it, allowing plenty of room to marry in the coating from the lower lift, then dash the join/next lift down,,, and also, make sure the scaffold planks etc are out of the way so as to get a good clear cast with each harling trowel of chips. If you cast the chips too hard at the coating, they will sink too far into the cement, giving the harling a scabby look, spoiling the appearance, plus, you must be consistent with the flick. Another thing some people do, is to go back and throw more chips on an area they did earlier, thinking it a looked a bit bare,, that does more harm than good, because it knocks chips that are already on the wall, making it look even patchier, and never flick water onto the joins in the harling,,, it'll show up the join. There's a lot to roughcasting, and if anyone thinks it's a job where you dont have to be too fussy,,,, they're better leaving it alone.

Roughcaster.

[roy c]

If a customer wants a house skimmed, rendered,dashed, roughcasted,or any other type of finish that is associated with a plasterers trade and employs a person who is advertising as a "plasterer-renderer" then that person should be able to give that customer the finished job that the person who employs them the finish that they want, As any plasterer knows ( by experience) if you are using materials for a certain finish you must know how to apply them and have the Knowledge of how they are going to look when applied. As for Canterbury Spar dash as the predominant colour is red in the dash I have always put a red dye in the scratch and base coat for the dash to blend in ,as opposed to throwing it on a plain sand/cement background or sand cement lime background. I don't do much (in fact hardly any) dashing now so most of my rendering is flat coat rubbed up and sponged. But don't think that spreads who dash have no knowledge of rendering and vice-versa it's all part of the trade

[noseall]

Plastering the insides of houses is a doddle compared to external decorative renders.

I solute these lads.

[tommyl18]

yea totally agree rendering is much harder graft and its like anything knowledge is the key!