A previous owner of my son's house has painted part of the exterior wall
with black bitumastic paint in an attempt to solve a damp problem. In
fact I think it's making matters worse by not allowing the brick to
breathe. Does anyone have any suggestions or experience of removing
similar? Grit blasting, magic chemicals, pressure washing, elbow grease
or any combination of the above? Google throws up a variety of
solutions so any suggestions gratefully received.

Peter.

"PJK" wrote in message
...
A previous owner of my son's house has painted part of the exterior wall
with black bitumastic paint in an attempt to solve a damp problem. In fact
I think it's making matters worse by not allowing the brick to breathe.
Does anyone have any suggestions or experience of removing similar? Grit
blasting, magic chemicals, pressure washing, elbow grease or any
combination of the above? Google throws up a variety of solutions so any
suggestions gratefully received.



I had this on a gable wall, it was quite old stuff. The wall was repointed
and this got rid of a lot of it. I just scrapped off that which was loose
and painted it.
I would imagine that the property has lime mortar if it was painted with
bitumen, in which case the lime mortar will disappear quicker than the
bitumen.
mark

PJK wrote:
A previous owner of my son's house has painted part of the exterior wall
with black bitumastic paint in an attempt to solve a damp problem. In
fact I think it's making matters worse by not allowing the brick to
breathe. Does anyone have any suggestions or experience of removing
similar? Grit blasting, magic chemicals, pressure washing, elbow grease
or any combination of the above? Google throws up a variety of
solutions so any suggestions gratefully received.

Peter.

Methylene chloride paint stripper is relatively easy if the underlying
brickwork is flat and the scraper can run across it smoothly. You'd need
a lot of it though, so buy it in 5 litre sizes from a wood finish
supplier (usually listed under "french polish supplies" or similar).

On Nov 6, 5:13*pm, PJK wrote:
A previous owner of my son's house has painted part of the exterior wall
with black bitumastic paint in an attempt to solve a damp problem. *In
fact I think it's making matters worse by not allowing the brick to
breathe. *Does anyone have any suggestions or experience of removing
similar? *Grit blasting, magic chemicals, pressure washing, elbow grease
or any combination of the above? *Google throws up a variety of
solutions so any suggestions gratefully received.

Peter.

Yeah, it generally does make it worse.
Blasting is a no-no, it will strip the brick face off, and the bricks
then gradually disintegrate.
Paraffin dissolves bitumen on contact, but simpler is to just repoint
using lime.


NT

NT wrote:
On Nov 6, 5:13 pm, PJK wrote:
A previous owner of my son's house has painted part of the exterior wall
with black bitumastic paint in an attempt to solve a damp problem. In
fact I think it's making matters worse by not allowing the brick to
breathe. Does anyone have any suggestions or experience of removing
similar? Grit blasting, magic chemicals, pressure washing, elbow grease
or any combination of the above? Google throws up a variety of
solutions so any suggestions gratefully received.

Peter.

Yeah, it generally does make it worse.
Blasting is a no-no, it will strip the brick face off, and the bricks
then gradually disintegrate.

Don't be silly. Plenty of historic buildings have been tarted up that
way. In most cases there is no practical way to remove paint without
losing the faces. Has made no difference to any building I know of,
including part of my own house that was done 20 odd years ago.

Paraffin dissolves bitumen on contact, but simpler is to just repoint
using lime.


And leave the bitumen on the faces?

On Sat, 07 Nov 2009 08:31:30 GMT, Stuart Noble
wrote:

NT wrote:
On Nov 6, 5:13 pm, PJK wrote:
A previous owner of my son's house has painted part of the exterior wall
with black bitumastic paint in an attempt to solve a damp problem. In
fact I think it's making matters worse by not allowing the brick to
breathe. Does anyone have any suggestions or experience of removing
similar? Grit blasting, magic chemicals, pressure washing, elbow grease
or any combination of the above? Google throws up a variety of
solutions so any suggestions gratefully received.

Peter.

In the building conservation trade, the technique of choice is

1. Flake it off if it will come off easily. It probably wont, so ...
2. Magic chemicals. Peelaway is one name which comes to mind. Another
is http://www.stripperspaintremovers.com/

Anna

Anna Kettle wrote:

http://www.stripperspaintremovers.com/

Have bookmarked that one. Nice to find a proper trade supplier with
sensible prices

On 6 Nov, 17:13, PJK wrote:

Does anyone have any suggestions or experience of removing
similar?

Wire brush by hand. If it's damp behind, that will already have pushed
much of the bitumen off the wall anyway, you just need to help it.

The "scouring pad" whirly disks for paint removal are good here too,
as they don't damage terracotta. I'm working through our Victorian
gatepost pyramids with them.