HELP - Removing Paint, External Brickwork

garbanzo

Hoping for a dig out here DIY'ers

The previous occupants of Chateau Garbanzo had the good taste to paint the pointing on the red brickwork outside at the front of the house, I'd say 30 odd years ago. They seemed to leave the bricks themselves alone, just the pointing. It is black paint, not sure whether it is oil based or other (and I know that's an important factor here) and it looks absolutely awful. So, it has to go.

I got a quote of €600 from some crowd or another to remove it using chemicals which aint an option in these recessionary times. An added complicator is that we got the driveway cobbleblocked and I'm worried that any acid/treatment i put on might damage the cobbles.

All advice appreciated.

PirateShampoo

Could try sand blasting it. Not sure if you can rent them though.

CJhaughey

You need a good powerful petrol waterblaster/powerwasher with a turbo nozzle.
It will be a time consuming job no question.

garbanzo

Thanks PirateShampoo. I looked into this a few months back but was told they don't rent sand blasters out out any more.

Back from the dead CJH . . . fantastic. When you say "petrol" i presume you are talking about something a few steps above your electric (yellow) Karcher type jobbo, with buckets loads more pressure. Are these easily rentable from local DIY-Hire places or would I need to go to a more specialised provider. Can you suggets a name of a petrol waterblaster/powerwasher ?

Thanks folks.

jimoc

Not sure if you've tried this yet, but if you attack it with a wire brush does it make any impact.
It may be that 30 years on, the pointing underneath may have become a little powdery and the paint may just need a little light persuasion to come off.
If it does then it will end up being a lot cleaner then doing it with the pressure washer as you will end up with a load of dust to sweep away rather then 20 gallons of water running down your driveway

garbanzo

Appreciate that suggestion Jimoc however, I was really hoping against all hopes that the words "brush" and "wire" (not necessarily in that order wouldn't feature in this thread. Even the mere thoughts of taking a holy jayzusing wire brush to the damn thing is enough to kill me.

The way I'm thinking; they put men on the moon 40 years ago, is there no easier way to remove it ?

garbanzo

Giving this a bump as I still haven't found a solution to this 2 and a half years on. I tried a steamer on it but no luck. Likewise I gave the nitromorse and wire brush suggestion a go but no success really. Has anyone used a product called Sea to Sky. There are a crowd called Ptarmigen up in Leitrim who sell it. I also have a query in with a sand blasting company too but nothing back yet. Seriously, this is wrecking my head now so keen to get a solution.

I have added picture to illustrate the task. Neighbour's brickwork on right hand side . . .mine on the left hand side.

Thanks

garbanzo

Updating that I got a professional firm out to quote the job for me last week. Circa €700 to get the full 10m sq area done :eek:. It is a lot of money just at the minute so I will probably pass until later next year but it does seem to be the proper solution for me. They did a test patch of about a square metre and, in fairness, it came out very, very well and the cobblelocking was not damaged/discoloured. It took two applications of some "stuff" and powerwashing with steam.

Will polish up my haggling skills for the new year.

cnocbui

Paint stripper, elbowgrease and possibly a powerwasher are my suggestions.

By painstripper, i don't mean thinners. Paintstripper containing Methyl Ethyl Ketone usually works for me. They are usually in a gel form so stay in place. You would want to wear protective/disposable clothing and eye protection as it nasty stuff if gotten on skin.

A heat-gun might work, but I think that might be more for getting paint off wood.

I would apply paint stripper, wait for it do it's work then use a powerwasher to get the softened paint and stripper off, and to periodically hose off the paving.

Wertz

Not just a heatgun, I'd actually use a blowtorch on this...you want to actually burn the paint off as much as possible and then powerwash the whole thing. Going to be time consuming and use a fair bit of gas. Try a bit of it and see what you think.

Why the hell would someone go to the trouble of painting the pointing? I was originally going to suggest that the cement had dye added at time of building but obviously not.

slowburner

I'd be a bit concerned about a blowtorch damaging the pointing and/or brickwork.

galwaydude18

Would the blow torch not scorch the brick work?

moy83

i dont know what it would cost but would it be worth asking a brickie to rake out the joints and repoint them with new mortar ? maybe the previous owners painted the old joints to cover up bad pointing or discolouration ? Id say it wouldnt take a brickie much more than a couple of days to repoint 10msq

Wertz

I've seen Victorian decorative smooth faced brickwork and pointing taken back up from several layers of paint on a local pub here, using a blowtorch. Think it may have been powerwashed down after.
It might be over kill for the pointing alone, but bricks are fired in kilns that get hotter than a blowtorch flame. If the flame is hot enough (blue rather than yellow) it shouldn't scorch the brick...couldn't be sure what way the mortar might react, which is why I suggested a test area first.

Raking out and repointing is also a good suggestion.
No matter how you go about it there's no quick (nor cheap) fix for this.

Nonmonotonic

There is a cheap solution however there is a serious caution with this advice. I have used caustic soda ( drain cleaner ) to remove paint from stone in the past. I probably dont need to emphasise the need to prevent the solution getting on your person. Caustic soda will dissolve skin so when your hands getting slippy you know it's time to wash with lots of water! Protect your eyes and use gloves and waterproofs. Apply the caustic with a nylon brush ( toothbrush? ) and leave to dissolve th paint. Don't use ordinary brush because it will dissolve the hair. Leave the solution for as long as you like then wash. Depending on strength of paint you may have to repeat the process. Just be careful and you will be safe.

DONT work over your head because you will get caustic in the eyes!

arepas

Can I get the name of the people you used/got a quote from? I want to remove paint from brickwork (red brick painted over with red paint and black paint on the pointing), thanks.

garbanzo

Hey arepas

I dealt with Frank Nolan of Nolan Group out in Rathcoole, Co. Dublin. Telephone 01 401 8500.

I still haven't gotten this job done as I'm trying to save the money required to do it. If you do go ahead will you let me know how you got on?

Cheers

garbanzo

whizbang

Did you test the blowtorch yet ?
i tried my window surrounds recently, the paint just seems to have melted back into the wall. and the old black comes up top.:mad:

anybody else had success??

richiek67

Just looking at all the replies, seems you dont want to go down the road re: chemicals. I saw someone mention a Blow torch...that would be something i would have suggested too, you can get them with quite narrow flames and the handheld ones are quite cheap...B&Q do them. I have one for soldering copper pipes for some art stuff I do. In conjunction with it you could also use an old chisel , round the end of it with a grinder to the contour of the pointed brickwork ( Convex for the chisel) and this would surely make it easy enough to scoop the paint off. I suppose it all depends on how much physical work your prepared to put in yourself!! :rolleyes:

Cheers

Rich

Alun

I've seen some posts recently on boards (in the classic cars forum and here in DIY) about a technique called 'vapour blasting' which can be used on all kinds of surfaces including brick/stone. Looks promising.

http://www.tadltd.ie/

Maudi

Alun wrote: »

I've seen some posts recently on boards (in the classic cars forum and here in DIY) about a technique called 'vapour blasting' which can be used on all kinds of surfaces including brick/stone. Looks promising.

http://www.tadltd.ie/

Hi..this way might be a little less invasive and it will only work on the pointing..but if you want the paintless pointing look how about repainting it cement colour...portland is the name of the colour a.f.a.i.r...just the black pointing mind...its not ideal but it works and covers that horrid black pointing...if its done properly it should look repointed...which is another option too...

garbanzo

Thanks for all the comments and suggestions y'all.

The prob is that in other areas there is red-ish blotchy paint so that needs to come off too. Whizbang . . .I did have a go at a blow torch and it wasn't worth a toss on the pointing. Made no real difference.

I am minded to go the chemical route and have almost saved up the money to get it done. I will post back results once I have the job done.

garbanzo

garbanzo wrote: »

Thanks for all the comments and suggestions y'all.

The prob is that in other areas there is red-ish blotchy paint so that needs to come off too. Whizbang . . .I did have a go at a blow torch and it wasn't worth a toss on the pointing. Made no real difference.

I am minded to go the chemical route and have almost saved up the money to get it done. I will post back results once I have the job done.

True to my word here I am back. Job now done and I am happy with it. Picture attached so you can compare with the photo I posted a while back.

Wall.jpg

Very happy with the guys who did the job. There is a solution for every problem isn't there . . .as long as you can stump up the few bob.

whizbang

Nice Job, well done