Removing exterior paint from house brickwork

[Rhubarbgarden]

We were all set to get the exterior paint removed to get back to the original Georgian brickwork (house is only painted on two sides - the other two are the lovely original brick. There is no render - the paint is directly onto the brick.

We'd been given a quote of £5K, and got consent from the council (house is listed), but now after doing a test patch the contractor has suddenly decided it's more complicated than he originally thought, and has upped the quote to £12K. Argh - we don't have £12K.

Has anyone had anything similar done? Does this price sound right? Dh is talking about having a stab himself with a pressure washer and some stuff he's read about called 'Peel Away'. Anyone got any experience/advice?

I don't have any idea how much it should cost sorry. I do know though that if done badly, it can damage the baked brick surface which will lead in time to water getting in and the bricks crumbling. So I'd be very very cautious about a DIY job.

Can you get a second quote to compare? our local council has lists of recommended tradespeople for conservation type work, could you try the council? they might even be able to give you an idea of what this kind of job usually costs.

Please talk to your local conservation officer before attempting any DIY removal.

Removing paint from brick is an absolutely miserable job. You have to be careful with a pressure washer, because the mortar is soft (relative to the brick).

It could be worse... I once owned a house where the brick had been "painted" with redwood stain. Looked more or less like natural brick, in a bad light.

As you are listed you need to be very careful about what you do. What is the contractor concerned about and what is the reason it's more than doubled in cost?

There are systems for paint removal- Doff or Jos which are suitable. I'd try some other conservation contractors. A DIY job is likely to be unsuccessful and chemicals may affect the bricks.

I've used Peel Away on internal decorative plasterwork. It's nasty stuff.

We've had paint removed from external stonework, and the builders basically ground it off (but that was stone not brick, so less concern about damaging the surface).

It's both awful and perfectly do-able as a job - I've done it myself, though only for one room. I think there might be a point at which you start to think that £12k was cheap...

There's a specialist company - Strippers of Suffolk (yes, I know...) - that makes a range of chemical treatments that are specifically designed for the different sorts of paints that might have been used. You send them a paint sample, and they then match it up with the appropriate chemical treatment. I used Kling-Strip and it successfully took all the masonry paint off my ancient bricks without damaging the bricks.

Take a look on the website and see what they suggest: www.stripperspaintremovers.com/index.htm

You might also want to phone SPAB and see if they have any advice.

I would be trying to get more advice - try the conservation officer.

Our neighbours did this as someone had put weatherproof paint on their listed building. The initial quote they had was for around £15k, then they found someone who could do it for half of that, but this was based on just taking off most of the paint and then repainting with lime wash - thus reducing the amount of paint that had to be removed.

Thanks for all the great advice. Dh is making surprisingly good progress just using a cold water pressure washer. It's not affecting the mortar, but it's not getting it all off so some kind of stripper might be necessary for the layer underneath. Our project manager (supposed to be a specialist in historic buildings) is going to 'try something else on Monday' so we'll see what that involves.

I'll look up the Suffolk Strippers stuff - thanks for that.

YY to Kling-strip!

We've just had the paint removed from the front of the house and 're pointed. It cost 6,500 which we thought was expensive although it looks great. I'm just a bit concerned in case we've been ripped off!!

Removal of paint from brick is generally a straightforward task of selecting the right chemical stripper and get cracking, perhaps assume a repoint too.

If you're trying to remove limewash however, which you may find underneath then you're in for some trouble as I have experienced. It can only be removed by grinding the face of the bricks off (no no no no no) OR copious amounts of hydrochloric acid which will dissolve it away but also dissolve the mortar too. If that 'solution' isn't bad enough the final kick in the wotsits is that there's a good chance it will change the colour of the brick too. London yellow stocks may turn a golden rusty purpley brown.... I gave up, and didn't really ever trust any contractors I came into contact with. My walls will end up being re-limewashed or mineral paint applied. It's a shame I couldn't get it back to the original brick. Specialist systems like Jos (steam, didn't work) and Torc (water + grit blasting, can't remove limewash that's harder than the substrates) can't do it either.

Please can anyone recommend a reliable and affordable company that can remove paint from our Victorian property? Thanks

Thanks for all these messages - very informative and helpful!
We’re hoping to restore our original brickwork so we’d like to strip the paint from exterior of our Victorian property. Any good recommendations are very welcome!
we’re based in south west London.

I had paint removed from the bricks on a Georgian house and it looked wonderful when finished, I then painted the Stucco (using a Keim paint colour) not glassy, glossy white but a beautiful off white colour. The council were no help whatsoever with tradespeople, colours or anything. It was truly worth the effort and money as I felt these houses we preserve for the next generation.

Then some idiot a couple of years ago painted all of the brickwork of their house the 'grey' that seems to be fashionable and now someone else I have noticed has painted the whole of his house including the Stucco and windows the same grey colour. The neighbours hate it, I would not contemplate buying it, all that effort for what he thought it was different and original idea!

get it sandblasted and re -pointed if necessary - noisy, messy and a lot of sweeping sand out of the furniture but quick and no chemicals of any sort.

I can remove paint from brickwork ,

We had paint removed from Accrington brick using glass blasting- a bit drastic, but the chemical route just wasn't feasable- there were three thick and old coats of gloss paint on the bricks (which looked awful), it would have taken gallons and gallons of chemicals and weeks to do. Took less than a day. The brick has stood up to the treatment, it's just slightly less shiny than new Accringtons, but I suspect anything less than Accrington brick, which if you have never come across it, is as hard as nails, would be too soft.
Please, people, never paint brick. It's bad for the brick, can make a house damp, and it almost always looks crap even when new. When it starts to wear and/or peel, which it will do eventually, it makes an otherwise decent house look like a slum unless you keep painting it, costing a fortune or being a lot of work or both, and making the structural problems with damp worse and worse.

It sounds like you did a lovely job, good for you. I bet it looks wonderful- and it's not just you, but also people who walk past, that will enjoy seeing your work. Very satisfying.

re the grey painted bricks- it's so sad that some people seem to have no feeling at all for old buildings. Especially old brick like your Georgian brick, which can be so beautiful.