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Pebble Dashing or Replacement
In many older houses that have not been rendered there may be some problems with the brick work. What can happen with older properties, particularly in damper climates is that the wall ties become corroded and need replacing. Some builders may advise that if you have wall ties that are corroded you have a choice of pebble dashing or replacing the ties. Even when wall ties are replaced some contractors may suggest that you still have your walls pebble dashed for extra protection because when you replace wall ties in brick work it leaves small holes in the bricks. You will need to have the holes made good whether or not you decide to have pebble dashing on the wall.
Making Holes Good
One way of making good the holes is to ask the bricklayer to save as much of the brick dust drilled out that he can, this can then be mixed with the mortar to preserve the colour and look of the bricks. When wall ties are corroded but still in place, removing them so that they can be replaced can cause much bigger problems than you might anticipate which is why the builder may have suggested pebble dashing even after the ties are replaced. Sometimes, removing the corroded wall tiles is so difficult that the job can involve bricks being removed. Once bricks have been removed to take out the corroded wall ties and new ties put in place, the brick work will have to be repointed and then you need to apply a couple of coats of a silicone repellant as this will provide the same kind of protection for your wall as pebble dashing.
Pebble Dashing
You may not need to make a choice between pebble dashing or replacement but if you prefer to cover the bricks to give added protection then pebble dashing will do the job. Pebble dash is a textured or rough cast render for exterior walls. A traditional lime or cement render is applied and while the top coat of the render is still wet, smooth pebbles are thrown or ‘dashed’ onto the surface. Pebble dash is usually an easy render to maintain, but in areas where there is a lot of damp because there can be a build up of verdigris on north facing walls, which will need to be treated with a moss killer or fungicide.
Pebble Dash is Low Maintenance
The main reason that pebble dash does not require much maintenance is because the pebbles are the weathering face that protects the substrata underneath. As time goes by continued weathering can mean that some of the stones fall off but this should not make too much difference to the surface. Pebble dashing very seldom lets water in unless the render has bridged the damp course and dashing is often used to help cure damp problems, especially when a waterproof substance is added to the render mix. If pebble dashing does lose a lot of stones, sometimes because the surface onto which they were thrown was too dry, patching is not really an option and the whole render may need to be removed and replaced.
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