[jetrep]

Hi all,

Several years ago we bought a brick home. The bricks appeared to be painted (white). It looked terrible. It was thought that it would look better if we had the paint stripped, thereby restoring the original brick color.

The brick was sandblasted. It turned out it wasn't just painted brick...a mortar of some sort was spread over the brick before painting. This made a simple sandblasting job much more challenging. The results can be seen in the photos below. You'll notice the mortar did not come off in some spots on some bricks as it bonded too well.

Some of the mortar between bricks is far from flush with the front surface of the brick. The brick itself does not look very good. I haven't gotten any estimates for tuckpointing as I think even with that work done it will still look lousy.

Does anyone have any suggestions on what they would do in such a situation?

 

[gregzoll]

Looks like they had already been tuck pointed, and sandblasting just made the areas that were to fail, just make the job harder. You already stated that the joints need tuck pointed, so that really is the way to fix this. Red clay brick in its whole is ugly.

 

[shumakerscott]

You sure opened up a can of worms:yes:. You could use a Multi Master tool with a carbide blade and finish cleaning them, one at a time. You could also paint each brick what ever color you would like. They will need sealing up that's for sure. I want to know what you end up doing, dorf dude...

 

[jcrack_corn]

there are about 500 things that can be done, please call a mason or brick supply company.

just off the top of my head you can completely change the look/fix the cosmetic issues with:

1.) painting
2.) parging
3.) stucco
4.) sacking/bagging (probably a good option for you)

In any case, those mortar joints are not allowed, they will allow water in and fail over time, so the do need to be tuckpointed and shaped correctly so your brick doesnt fail.

 

[95025]

Tuck-pointing is going to be big bucks! I'd suggest spray/sealing it with a good product (We did this, years ago, on an office building I was in. Unfortunately I don't remember the product name.) It's not a permanent fix, but certainly buys you some time.

 

[Ron6519]

Sand blasting brick was not a good idea. It allows more moisture into the brick by eroding the exterior fired surface.
Ron