Painting is one of the jobs that I don’t particularly enjoy, and always takes so much more time than it should. Preparation is half the job, and any time spent on prep is worth it many times over.
Until now I’ve painted the hallways inside, the office room, loft room, and the repaired rendered garden wall. But not pebbledash.
Painting pebbledash is a pain! It is hard. Our garage had old flakey walls that hadn’t been painted in many years. This is how it looked at the start:
This is how I ended up painting the pebbledash and the garage in the end:
- Rub off all loose paint and plaster with a stiff wire brush
- Hose off thoroughly, working from top down.
- Dilute the paint by 20% or so, to make it soak into the surface a little. I used Dulux weathershield brilliant white paint.
- Cut in around the edges using a 4″ masonry brush. Don’t scrimp on the brushes.
- Paint the main walls using a thick pile masonry roller. A masonry roller is essential. It has long hairs that get into all the crevices
- Finish any missed areas with the brush, working in a rotating motion to get into the holes
- Top coat in more Dulux, without diluting.
The whole thing took around 2 hours per coat, including prep, which wasn’t too bad.
What it taught me is never paint the pebbledash on the house. It will look good for a while, but repainting it every few years would be a nightmare.
Doors, Windows, Fascia and Soffits.
I was a little worried about the garage being too white so we decided to paint the doors a deep Forest green, and the fascia’s black.
Later on I’m going to add a window box and shutters, and I’ll open up the window from inside to get rid of the chipboard that is there now.
This is how it looks so far. Much better! It needs some nice pots and flowers in front of it, and I haven’t had time to fit the new guttering yet, but it’s much better looking from the house.
Still left to do:
- Open the window
- Put up the new black guttering
- Another coat of paint on the render
