The front of my house (Victorian red brick) is painted. How difficult
would it be to remove the paint and restore brickwork to something
like the original? What's the best way to do it?

On 27 Jan 2007 10:32:44 -0800, "atticus" wrote:

The front of my house (Victorian red brick) is painted. How difficult
would it be to remove the paint and restore brickwork to something
like the original? What's the best way to do it?

Depends on the surface of the bricks but I can't see a satisfactory
way of unpainting a whole house front.

I've found it nigh on impossible to completely remove the odd errant
brush strokes (On LBC sandfaced bricks) from when SWMBO decided she'd
waited long enough to have the white woodwork painted.

I tried Nitromors which got 70% off followed by vigorous scouring
which got another 20% off, at the cost of damaging the face of the
bricks.

Nitromors only works the once, after that you are down to mechanical
removal methods, over a whole house front I couldn't contemplate it.

I don't know if a caustic stripper would work any better on brick, but
the quantities needed would be humunguous.

DG

In article ,
Derek Geldard writes:

I don't know if a caustic stripper would work any better on brick, but
the quantities needed would be humunguous.

I imagine it would have to be something which removed the brick
surface, sand blasting maybe? Depends on the bricks if they will
withstand that and what they'll look like and how they'll weather
afterwards.

--
Andrew Gabriel

On Jan 27, 7:47 pm, (Andrew Gabriel)
wrote:
In article ,
Derek Geldard writes:



I don't know if a caustic stripper would work any better on brick, but
the quantities needed would be humunguous.I imagine it would have to be something which removed the brick
surface, sand blasting maybe? Depends on the bricks if they will
withstand that and what they'll look like and how they'll weather
afterwards.

Having done this a few times now on london yellow & south soft reds,
Wire brushing is a definate No, Also steer clear of nitromors it can
affect the porosity of the brick and you could end up with water
penetration, Peel away type blanket strippers are the best for this
type of work, And the biggest hot power washer you can hire, Strip the
remaining paint with peel away type product then neutralise as
instructed, Then power wash and let someone help you do this by having
them sprinkle sharp sand into the fan spray with a dustpan as you are
washing, Protect all glass or it will be frosted in seconds, after
that the only thing left is abrasion by hand to remove anything left,
I am a proffesional property renovator and regularly work for English
Heritage cleaning, redecorating period property's And have found this
to work on numerous occasions with very minimal danage to stone or
brickwork sometimes a bit of repointing is needed, Then finally leave
to weather for a month if poss then seal with something like thompsons
water seal

--
Andrew Gabriel

Andrew Gabriel wrote:
In article ,
Derek Geldard writes:

I don't know if a caustic stripper would work any better on brick, but
the quantities needed would be humunguous.

I imagine it would have to be something which removed the brick
surface, sand blasting maybe? Depends on the bricks if they will
withstand that and what they'll look like and how they'll weather
afterwards.

people do sandblast the paint of Victorian hosues here in Cambridge
but my surveyor advised against it and said this is bad as it is only
the outer 'crust' of the old 'baked' brick that is strong. Once
blasted they are porus more prone to decay and crumbling.

Robert