General brick cleaning questions

[overlander matt]

We have a section of garden wall which requires a lot of replacement bricks. The previous owner of the house was always on the lookout for local bricks and there are a few piles in various locations around the garden. Unfortunately they are not terribly clean (moss, mud, plant life) and I wonder how best to clean them up so they can be used in the wall.



On the subject of cleaning bricks, I did wonder how best to give the brickwork on the house a general clean - nothing too severe of course but generally to remove some of the black grime you can see in the photo below. The bricks also need to have some white paint removed where they were overpainted during careless window redecoration....

View attachment 1

Thanks in advance for any help with this one.

Matt

 

[Feltwell]

Hi Matt

I've cleaned up more bricks here than I care to remember.... About 12 large pallets worth when I built my garage! I was doing more at the weekend, replacements for the chimney I'm working on.

Your loose bricks, start off with a pressure washer would be my advice - that will take off all the muck and any loose mortar - I've found that the really ingrained old soot & muck doesn't come off, they still look old afterwards! Once you've got them clean then it's just a case of assessing them - some will need mortar taking off with a brick bolster & hammer, some may need a bit of brick acid if you want to get mortar traces off, some may need a bit of paint stripper - though I found the pressure washer takes most old paint off. Try a few and see how it goes, if they're really soft and the pressure washer damages them then it's a bucket of warm water and a scrubbing brush!

Bricks that are in-situ - totally different, I definitely wouldn't go near them with a normal cold water pressure washer! Personally I'd learn to love the "black grime" - try and clean it yourself and I think it will look patchy. If you really wanted it clean I'd be looking at an experienced contractor with something like a Doff system:-

https://midlandmasonry.co.uk/cleaning/

Odd little paint splashes on brick? A careful go with a scraper, followed by a small brush and a little paint stripper if necessary. Most of mine here chip off cleanly without using stripper if I'm careful.

 

[Craig89]

I too have more experiance than I wish I had on cleaning bricks. The bricks on your house look quite soft so proceed with caution. I too would probably recommend giving the loose bricks a once over with the jet wash

 

[LeeL82]

We used "Wet & Forget" on our sandstone house and after around 6 weeks waiting we could see the original sandstone colour back through if your spraying it and it hits the grass at the side of the house it also kills that off so do be careful! I was sceptical at first, but it really did work! (I sound like a spambot here haha I'm cringing as I type this)

Have a look at it on Amazon https://www.amazon.co.uk/Wet-Forget-Mould-Lichen-Remover/dp/B005IW4GWI/ref=sr_1_4?keywords=wet+and+forget&qid=1562749626&s=gateway&sr=8-4
Lee.

 

[Feltwell]

We used "Wet & Forget" on our sandstone house

I'm glad you posted that Lee - I've got a tarmac drive that's a bit mossy and green, that sounds like the perfect stuff. Not sure I'd be brave enough to use it on the house though!

 

[Gareth Hughes]

Hi Matt
I'd advise against cleaning the brickwork of the house. There isn't really an effective way to clean brickwork "a bit" without it looking patchy and worse than a pattern of grime that has built up over the centuries, which generally means it's all or nothing when it comes to cleaning. And do you really want your 250 year old house to look as if it was built yesterday?
Bear in mind, too, that cleaning very often does not recover the "original" colour, but a nasty bright alternative.

 

[overlander matt]

Thanks for the helpful advice. There's nothing like hearing from those with first hand experience of what I have to do. I will get the jetwasher going on the brick piles to see what we can use in the garden walls. The general brickwork cleaning requires more careful thought so as not to create a problem... It's not top of my priority right now anyway.

Thank you once again.

Matt

 

[LeeL82]

We used "Wet & Forget" on our sandstone house

I'm glad you posted that Lee - I've got a tarmac drive that's a bit mossy and green, that sounds like the perfect stuff. Not sure I'd be brave enough to use it on the house though!

Were a sandstone house, it was fine like I say it just killed the grass at the sides of the house that was touching brickwork! It also removed the moss from our flagstone drive too! Honestly, I couldn't praise the stuff enough! I'll try and get some before and after pictures, its still working away on the house and thats been months since we sprayed it, but you can see it slowly coming back to its lovely sandstone color!

 

[stuart45]

Hi Matt
I'd advise against cleaning the brickwork of the house. There isn't really an effective way to clean brickwork "a bit" without it looking patchy and worse than a pattern of grime that has built up over the centuries, which generally means it's all or nothing when it comes to cleaning. And do you really want your 250 year old house to look as if it was built yesterday?
Bear in mind, too, that cleaning very often does not recover the "original" colour, but a nasty bright alternative.

I would agree with all of this. The only thing I would do is to fix that patch at the left side.