Getting paint off brick?

[indiegrrl]

Hi we are in process of buying a really lovely Edwardian house. Problem is that someone painted red paint over the bay window part of the exterior, which is red brick. It looks quite out of keeping with the rest of the street. We're having a builder in anyway - is it worth asking whether they can remove paint from brickwork or will I seem an idiot (though they'll reach that conclusion pretty soon anyhow)?

You can remove paint with chemicals and a wire brush. Long, slow, elbow grease needed process plus the inhalation risk. Or use chemicals plus a high pressure hose, risk there is damage to your external brickwork or damp proof course, or window seals if applied incorrectly.

Will depend on how much and what type of paint I suppose. Was it painted to weather proof the brick? That would be more worrying.

when people paint (or pebbledash) old bricks, it is usually because there is something wrong with them, like they are eroded with weather or blown into holes from lime. Getting the paint off will not do the bricks any good because there will be some abrasion, whether brushing or sandblasting, and the old lime mortar will be soft or possibly falling out.

The bay window part, certainly above the ground floor, will probably have a wooden frame with a thin skin of brickwork, lath and plaster inside, not very weatherproof and not at all well insulated. If you find someone who knows local Edwardian houses (perhaps the local conservation society) for advice, it might be the brickwork needs rebuilding.

Get your surveyor to really, really look at the bay. Our bay has caused us no end of problems and ££££ - the 1980s replacement windows did not properly support the weight of the bay roof etc (nor the York paving slabs that were for some reason what is making up the middle curve of the bay) so it seriously drooped. We have had to in essence rebuild the whole sodding thing - canter levering joists, rsjs the works. It is now solid as a rock and has beautiful new aluminium, windows in it.

I love my bay. It is beautiful. Just it does come with issues.

Sooo helpful, thank you. Fishfingers do you mind me asking what you ended up paying please? Because SURE you and pigletjohn are correct. We've got to get report from structural engineer about our bay window and absolutely positive we will need to shell out. Some utterly duff windows have been jammed into it and I'll want that sorted out.

I would love to tell you but we have in essence had t rebuild our entire house so is kind of in one huge huge mass of money....we had do re-do our roof and as n a few years we want to do a loft conversion we decided to redo all the first floor ceiling joints too...so everything became part of everything if IYSWIM. We already knew we would have to repeater/window.

Ah well no worries! I'm not afraid of a bit of a renovation job - you can tell from the street that they are well built and well-maintained houses. Here's hoping we can knock a little bit off the price if we should have to rebuild the bay.

I had a friend with a Victorian semi a few years back - she had the same thing - had to underpin the whole bay - cos was at least a couple of grand.