Pebble Dash Repair for Blackwood Properties

Blackwood is a busy town on the ridge above the Sirhowy Valley, with a long high street and housing that spreads well beyond it, from older terraces to sizeable post-war estates and newer developments. A good share of those homes are finished in pebble dash, and a lot of that dash has been on the walls for half a century or longer.

Time and weather catch up with it. On higher ground the wind drives rain hard against exposed walls, and cold winters bring repeated freezing and thawing. Once cracks form, moisture gets behind the coat and it starts to lose its grip on the wall.

We work across Blackwood on everything from a single cracked panel to re-dashing or re-rendering whole houses, plus cleaning, painting and commercial repairs. We take time to find out what is really going on with your walls, then explain the options in plain terms.

Blackwood's homes and the weather on the ridge

Blackwood's older housing dates from the coal mining era, with terraces in stone and brick lining streets in and around the town centre and in neighbouring communities such as Cefn Fforest and Pontllanfraith. Many of those houses had dash added later. The town grew a great deal in the mid and late twentieth century, and estates of semis and terraces, including large areas of council housing, were finished in dash or roughcast from new.

Being on high ground between valleys, Blackwood is more exposed than towns sheltered in a valley floor. Wind-driven rain is a key issue, and in winter the temperature can drop well below freezing. That combination is hard on dash:

• Exposed gable ends crack and develop large hollow patches
• Upper floors, which catch most wind, tend to fail first
• Sheltered and north-facing walls collect algae and dirt
• Sills and window reveals let water in where seals have perished

We also see a lot of patchy, piecemeal repairs on Blackwood houses, where sections have been filled over the years in whatever material was to hand. Part of our job is to sort out what is sound and what is not, and to recommend a repair that will hold up on this exposed site.

Pebble dash jobs we often see in Blackwood

• Cutting out and re-dashing hollow areas on exposed gables
• Replacing old, mismatched patches with a cleaner, matched repair
• Full re-dashing of estate semis and terraces
• Rendering over dash with silicone or acrylic thin-coat systems
• Repairs and cleaning on high street shops and business premises

Many Blackwood owners come to us for patch repairs after noticing bulges or missing stones. We tap out the area, cut back to firm render and re-dash using the closest aggregate we can find.

Where years of patching have left the house looking uneven, full re-dashing or rendering over pebble dash gives a consistent finish and a chance to change the look of the house. Shops and other businesses on and around the high street can use our commercial pebble dash repair service, which we plan around your trading hours.