Anyone have a good technique or advice for removing a texture from a
brick? Our house is 16 years old and our fireplace wall is a
deep/dark red brick with a wavy texture that sticks out as much as
3/8". The wall is really dated looking. I want to preserve the look
of brick but we would rather cover it over than look at it in its
current state. Ideally I would like to smooth down the face of the
brick to be flat.

I was putting up crown along that wall and needed to smooth down one
row near the top. I tried a chisel, grinding wheel (don't ask) and
other grinding attachments with no real luck. The brick is way too
hard to make this a reasonable job across an entire wall.

Other questions:
- what can I expect to be inside the brick? will the brick have
consistent color throughout?
- on some 'paint removal' threads they advise not to sandblast on
exterior walls due to weather protection, etc... what would I suffer
with inside? Is there risk of breaking bricks?

Thanks for any tips/advice.

-Sean