Removing paint from brickwork

[tumbledown]

The external brick plinths of my house have been coated with weathrproof paint of various types - I assume in an effort to keep the damp out. Well, it hasn't worked. Is it advisable to try and remove this, or will its removal do more harm than good to the brickwork? I was thinking that if I could get it off I could repoint in lime and then just limewash. The only thing that is in the back of my mind is that one of the walls runs along a narrow public footpath, and does get wet a lot from splashes from the road. Do you think a breathable covering could cope with this? It's a fairly short stretch of wall so I don't mind having to recoat the limewash a couple of times a year if it helps cure the damp problems.

 

[Ian Bond]

Hi Tumbledown

I think you've posted this question up before, with no response so I'll have a go.

Is your house timber framed, with a wattle & daub or brick panel infill?

I haven't got a timber framed house, but if I had, from what I've read I would not want anything impervious coating the panels, plinth of timber frame - I'd want something that absorbs the rain water, and releases it back out to the atmosphere, keeping it away from the timbers, rather than deflecting it to them and trapping it there.

Mr Penrose, I think, has mentioned this company before, they may be able to suggest a way to get the stuff off the bricks.

http://www.stripperspaintremovers.com/index.htm

I'd lime render and wash the plinth then, unless the bricks are in good enough condition to just limewash, and you want them visible.

Please tell us more about your house, and give a bit of info about its age and construction.

As I said I don't have a timber framed house (do have an interest in getting paint off stone) so could be talking rubbish - hopefully someone will correct me if that's the case!!!

Cheers

Ian

 

[tumbledown]

Thanks for the info.

My house is timberframed and between 400 - 500 years old, so i'm told. It was originally built as a Gild House, but has also been a pub in its time, and split up several times over the years - at one time it was 3 houses, then 1 house and 2 flats. It the moment the original building is split in two - i live in one part, and have just bought the other part, which is the part I'm now renovating.

I believe that the infils were originally wattle and daub, and some of these still survive in part, although they have been covered and filled with cement. Others have brick infils, once again overed with cement. Very little of the original lime plaster has survived, although I am finding more and more as I chip away at the cement.

Over the years, the timber frame has been hacked about a fair bit - sections of the sole plate have gone all together to make way for various door ways etc. Part of the original stud work has been removed and replaced with a length of modern brickwork (done in the sixties I'd say).

Still, despite all the cement render, the concrete floors and various other acts of 'modernisation', I still feel the place can regain its old character - it has some lovely carved timbers and must have been quite a grand building at some point.

Still, I have to say that sometimes I feel I looked at this building with 'rose coloured glasses on' and sometimes feel I may have bitten off more than I can chew. The amount of work and mounting costs can sometimes seem a bit overwhelming .......