What to do with the painted brick at back of the house

[Whatisapension]

My house is a 1950s terrace, with a brick shed about half a meter from the back door. The previous owners enclosed the space between the house and shed to create a type of lean to porch. I am taking this down and leaving open as it restricts access to the side alley.

They have painted the exterior brick all around the back door, on the 'inside' of the porch. The paint is layer upon layer, flaking etc. Even if the paint was fine, it will still look odd to have a random block of the brickwork painted.

I'm not a fan of painted brickwork in general so I want to avoid painting the entire back of the house so it is atleast one colour, but I am not sure what else to do with it. I have read that removing the paint can be incredibly difficult, and you might not be able to get it off completely. Chemicals for removal can apparently can cause damage to the brick.

Has anyone got any experience of removing exterior paint, or any ideas on what else I could do to cover it?

I tried on something similar - it didn't work for me.

Have you consider sandblasting. This is my plan for my painted concrete window sills

Thanks, had not thought of that. There's some conflicting info online, some say it is fine but some say it can cause damage to brick work. I may just need to find out how to get the bricks repaired afterwards aswell.

I hope it's not going to be too expensive to just sort out a shoddy paint job!

I might be able to help.

My husband has a friend who owns a company who deal with this sort of thing - and he’s a nice guy and will happily give you advice over the phone as I doubt he will be local to you anyway. They’re very good at what they do (they’ve been on Grand Designs and DIY sos doing stuff like blending in old and new brickwork and repairing/stripping back). I don’t want to post the company name here as I don’t want to be seen to be pushing anything sales-ish - as I say he would advise you over the phone - but if you want the company name message me and I’ll send you a link.

Have you thought about having the wall rendered?

I had a similar problem, unfortnately trying to take the paint off the bricks also damaged the front of them (we did a small test patch) so I honestly wouldn't go down the costly route of getting paint off. I would just rub down and repaint in a colour you like which is cheaper than render (but that is also nice). Another solution is to clad the painted sections with wood panelling.

My friend bought an ugly and decrepit Victorian house, the brick front of which had been painted. She had the paint stripped off - I think they did it with chemicals rather than sandblasting... I couldn't believe how well it came up.
It's now a lovely house!

@Austereorange please could you message me
Company name? As just today we were discussing how we will blend old and new brick work and make good a door way!

Austereorange yes please, that would be helpful.

Thanks all for the suggestions, it looks like it will be a case of trying out a paint stripper on a small area first. I would actually consider having it all rendered, but due to the cost I will look at the other options first - working my up from lowest to highest cost

I have come across some type of peel off paint stripper too which sounds easy (too easy in fact...) Worth having a go!

Could you DM me too please @Austereorange

Can't message in the app but thank you for the DM @Austereorange