askjake

Removing paint from brick

Question from Pam: 

Hi Jake, 

I have a old square 2 storey 1932 brick house. It is a white wash brick and the owners before us had painted it white. It needs to be repainted, can it just be scrapped and left or does it need to be painted? Also do you have any ideas for the interior, do we drywall or expose the brick? I know its a matter of taste.....just would like to hear your opinion. Thank you!! 

Jake's answer: 

Pam, 

Brick usually does not require painting. I have seen some brick that is scaling and a sealer has been recommended as a means to minimize future scaling. However, this is pretty rare. I would say you could go either way, scrape it and leave it like that or scrape and repaint. We used to sandblast painted brick to bring back the original brick look. This is pretty effective. Check out the paint before you blast it to make sure it is lead-free. In regards to your interior, I would leave some of the brick walls exposed, I like that look to a certain extent.

Enhancing Stone

I bought a house with unfinished grey riverrock fireplace. I want to enhance the color without making the stones dark. I bought an AQUA stone enhancer and sealer and it did darken my sample to nearly black. It said \"darkening\" on the package but I did not notice it. Are there other products that will not darken but leave a satin, low-sheen finish? Would varnish work? I never use the fireplace. When I wet the stone to clean it initially, some stones did darken with the water, but not to the extent of the sealer I used. Please help this middle school English teacher who is our out hewr element. Thank you very much for any help you can give me.

In our part of the country, the Midwest, where we are subject to the freeze-thaw cycles, we do not recommend putting any type of sealer on exterior stones.  Sealers can trap moisture inside the stone which can lead to the stone cracking and failing and it can also lead to a mold build up.  On interior projects, we do use enhancers when we want to darken the stone a bit and we use clear sealers to seal  while not changing the color too much.  Sealers of all types are available at most home centers or locations where stone is sold.  You are wise to always try a sample before doing the whole wall.