Restoring Brick

Submitted by onthelake81 t3_ywgq1v in DIY

I am hoping to restore this brick back to its original state. I thought it was just painted over, but when removed a header/entryway/wall that connected to the brick wall, it exposed some material under the paint. Is there anyway to remove the paint and this material to bring the brick back to its original state? https://imgur.com/a/wwzoHUy

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PerspectivePure2169 t1_iwjnwlz wrote

This is why masonry should never be painted. They should teach this in schools.

Because it permanently and irrevocably converts a surface with a major selling point of not needing painted... into one that does.

Forever.

You can get close to original with abrasive blasting, but it's still going to have a hue of the paint to it.

Sorry.

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914paul t1_iwjx8pe wrote

I have no expertise in masonry. But my instinct is that paint penetrates deep into bricks due to their semi-porous nature. Is that the reason for the permanence?

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PerspectivePure2169 t1_iwjxghu wrote

Yup. It can vary with the texture, but it's probably going to have some kind of halo about it even after blasting if the color varied markedly.

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914paul t1_iwjxyvt wrote

Thanks. Makes sense to me (and I imagine the mortar probably suffers even worse than the bricks).

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onthelake81 OP t1_iwlepma wrote

Couldn’t agree more! There are many things about this house that makes me question the sanity of the previous owners lol

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jam__1 t1_iwmpao9 wrote

Sandblasting can get it very very close but I don’t think you’ll ever be 100% back to original color

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Igottamake t1_iwksnky wrote

Saw this article the other day, for what it’s worth: https://www.apartmenttherapy.com/exposed-brick-risks-37182753

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orangezeroalpha t1_iwm4q7o wrote

That seems somewhat extreme to me; paint the walls and ruin the look because maybe bugs?

I bought a house with a white painted brick fireplace. A lot of hard work later and obviously it was painted but has a rustic look to it.

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Igottamake t1_iwm514f wrote

Just passing it along. Not as advocating one way or the other.

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