DIYbanter - Removing Paint from Bricks

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Removing Paint from Bricks

What's the best way to remove paint from red bricks? Is it a
reasonable DIY project or something for a professional?

DaveR wrote:
What's the best way to remove paint from red bricks? Is it a
reasonable DIY project or something for a professional?

Loose brick or brick wall?

R

On 5 Apr 2005 11:48:26 -0700, "RicodJour"
wrote:

What's the best way to remove paint from red bricks? Is it a
reasonable DIY project or something for a professional?

Loose brick or brick wall?

External brick wall, surrounding a window. The former owner painted it
white, which is a shame, because the natural brick is so much nicer.

"DaveR" wrote in message
...
What's the best way to remove paint from red bricks? Is it a
reasonable DIY project or something for a professional?

I have a pressure washer with a sandblaster attachment that does a fair job.
Success depends on the condition/hardness of the brick, mortar and paint
adhesion.

DaveR wrote:
On 5 Apr 2005 11:48:26 -0700, "RicodJour"
wrote:

What's the best way to remove paint from red bricks? Is it a
reasonable DIY project or something for a professional?

Loose brick or brick wall?

External brick wall, surrounding a window. The former owner painted
it
white, which is a shame, because the natural brick is so much nicer.

I like the Peel Away stuff. http://www.dumondchemicals.com Major
benefits include non-toxicity and, if using the fabric, the paint comes
off in a sheet. Not sure if there's lead paint there, but if there is
you don't want to be blasting it off with water or sand and having it
get in your soil.

Pressure washing is less prone to damaging the brick than sand
blasting, but the sand will cut the paint better and remove more of the
traces.

R

You will never get it all off better off leaving it. Brick is usualy
painted for a reason, it is going bad.

m Ransley wrote:
You will never get it all off better off leaving it. Brick is usualy
painted for a reason, it is going bad.

I'd like to think that was true, but I believe it's usually because
they wanted another color.

R

It realy depends on house age and softness of brick, what I see getting
painted is 100 yr old soft fired brick that has spalled , deteriorated
and looks so bad and can only look good painted. Old brick doesn`t mean
bad brick just some is soft junk [so is some new brick] . But true some
just like paint on everything, even stone sills.

Just to be carefull use small container of peal away on 2-3 bricks and
see whats under there before spending lots of $$$.
S

DaveR wrote:
What's the best way to remove paint from red bricks?

Go back in time and throttle the fool who painted the brick.

Is it a reasonable DIY project or something for a professional?

Time travel is best left to the professionals, but you can do your part by
making sure no one you ever encounter thinks that you would ever approve
of painting brick. It's essentially permanant, tho you can, with huge
amounts of patience and diligence and effort and luck, get a whole lot of
it off: usually it's easier to knock out the bricks and start over if you
really want to get back to a bare brick finish.

What I have seen done that works fairly well is to paint the bricks brick
color. That is mix up some grey for the mortar lines, some dark red for
the brick face and try to match the surrounding brick or a pleasant enough
brick color. You can get real fancy by fisrt painting a slightly darker
shade and then going over it lightly with a slightly lighter color to make
the effect really be convicning, but you still have a painted surface to
maintian anstead of the maintenance free brick surface.

John
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