Brick restoration

FrankGrimes

The previous owners of our house for some reason chose to paint the external brickwork on the lower half of the house (upper half is kinda pebbledash) a horrible dark reddish colour. They also painted the pointing black, and the pointing is done as a straight slope rather than the usual curved pointing. It seems the mortar is recessed about 15mm and then on top of that the pointing was done in a strange white substance which can be chipped out separately to the mortar.

We are adding a single storey extension to the side so need to match the bricks with the current bricks. We would like to take the existing bricks back to their original state and redo the pointing. I bought some specialised acid from the UK but not sure if it will do the job so want to consider other options including brick restoration companies. So any advice or suggestions would be much appreciated, as would rough cost estimates (about 6sq metres of brick).

rooferPete

Hi Frank.....

What you are describing is "Real Brickwork" not the rubbish that has been allowed for the last few years by rubbing the mortar joints with a round bar.

It is called "Struck Pointing" the mortar was recessed to allow the more waterproof 2 : 1 sand / cement finish to be pointed in using a small trowel and struck off in a straight line with a slight nib over the bricks below allowing the water to run off instead of soaking into the joint.

There was a stage in late 60's early 70's when a paint (more a dye) called Red Ochre (sp ?) was painted on to the bricks and the joints were often picked out in black.

The white substance could be a lime based or white cement pointing which some thought to take from the look of the brick finish after a few years.

Personally I would try a good high powered pressure washer before any acid treatments, there are a few companies specialising in cleaning brick work, I would avoid the sand blasting method if possible as it can damage the bricks.

.