Removing pebble dash

[booshank]

The pebble dash on my house is starting to become loose and flake off in small patches. As pebble dash is a pet hate of mine (horrible grim, dirty pinkish-grey colour) I'd like to remove it but I'm worried if I start I'll get half of it off and find the other half impossible to remove. Downstairs it is applied to the concrete render and upstairs to steel cladding.

How could I strip it all off so I can repaint the house and make it fresher-looking? It's much thinner than I imagined, little thicker than a layer of paint.

[booshank]

Just to follow up, thinking about it I'm not sure if it is pebble dash because:-

a) It's very thin. It's only about as thick as a layer of paint with fine particles of stone/mineral stuck to the surface.
b) It's applied to steel cladding as well as render, which seems odd.

I thought pebble dash was usually a thicker render-like layer. It's not original as most of the other houses with their original cladding don't have it and are just painted - and look much better.

What is it, and would maybe something like paint stripper take it off?

[welsh brickie]

sounds like tyrolean plaster its applied with a hand held spray machine.Can be removed with a scraper but it has a high lime content so wear goggles and gloves.

[booshank]

Thanks welsh brickie - is there any way I can tell whether it is tyrolean plaster? Normally I would try scraping away an inconspicuous bit as a test, but there isn't really an exterior wall that is hidden away where it won't notice.

[welsh brickie]

try "google" for tyrolean finishes,If you want to remove it all and re apply a new finish then no problem.
But if you try to patch it,its extremly difficult.
Its very messy and all windows/doors need to be masked before applying it.

[booshank]

Hmm, doesn't look that much like the image results I got from Google. Here is a photo of it (not close-up, as it wasn't taken for the purpose). You can see how it has been applied to the concrete render, steel window surrounds and steel cladding upstairs.

This is the south-facing back of the house where it is still in good condition. On the north facing front a bits have flaked off and more are about to, they have "blistered" away from the render but are still attached for now.

I'd really like to strip it all off so I can repaint on the original smooth surface.