How to make old brick look better?
Question:I have an old house (possibly 100 years old, no one is sure of the exact age, over 70 years old for sure) The home is a two and a half story single family home, we did massive renovations on the inside, but hasvent worked on the outside appearance much. The Brick looks ugly. It is old and has different shades to it. What is the best option to make it look better? I havent tried power washing yet, I might try that in the next few days. What I did do is use a power tool i have for getting rid of old paint. It is like a Sander/Grinder and I tried this on about 20 of the bricks and the 20 bricks look 100 times better then they did before. Can I cause alot of damage to the bricks considering they are so old by sanding them down with the power tool I have?
Answers:
Sand blasting the brick will make it look new again and it's pretty easy to do. You can rent the machine at your local tool rental place. Pressure washing just won't do it. When your finished, I'd have it looked at by someone that does tuck pointing in your area. Most professional masonry companies will do this. It's a procedure that remove about 1/2" of the mortar and replaces it around any brick that is loose or has a bad seal.
Use a masonry cleaner solution with your power washer. Put the grinder back in the garage and leave it alone.
Old bricks on old houses are supposed to look that way. why would you want to change that?? You may want a brick layer to check the mortar to make sure if is still bonding. You may want to check the "This old House" web site for more info.
yeah try the power wash first before you start sanding and grinding. Sanding and grinding only make the brick look better cause youre sanding and grinding away the dirt and ggrime and whatever as well. The power wash should blast away the dirt just the same. and yes if you are sanding away brick you are causing damage to the house. Probably not a whole lot but you are basically sanding away the exterior of your house.
If you do not care about keeping the historical appearance of the house you can always modernize it by cement rendering the brickwork. Paint is another option.
If you are into doing the tedius work to get a great end result then - -
Tools : light weight hammer, a very small size masonary chissle
Purpose : You want to see how much room you have to play with here between the face of the brick and the mortar holding them. If you have like a 1/4 inch, then proceed, if not you may not be able to continue- is my guess.
Task:
You will chissle away from the face of the brick very small portions to give a new shape to the brick - each being unique, but similiar. You may be able to round them off to some small degree and this will indeed give a whole new look to your bricks. However, you only wnat to take off very small amounts at one time, otherwise you risk cracking the brick. You would do good to practice on another brick before going to the actual bricks you will be working on.
Again though, if you doubt if your brck surfaces can survive the process, or you can not devote a lot of tim to the project then it is not something you want to start. I have done this, and it took a considerable amount of time because of chipping off less than 1/8" at a time...and the reshaping does take time it is tedius work. but my wall looks so totally cool now you would never know it was even the same wall that was there before.
Afterwards I went over the new brick surface with a wire brush in the drill thingy to rid debris & dirt.
A power wash cleans very well too.
On the other hand you may not want such a project, just a clean job then i'd consider lime solution in a power scrubber
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