Painting Your Brick Home Can Make a Dramatic Change to the Look of Your Home
If you love your brick home but don’t like its color, paint it. You may also want to paint the brick because it has become damaged or stained. Whatever the reason, the end result can be dramatic.
Before painting your brick, it needs to be properly prepared and primed to get it ready.
1. The first step is to wash the brick to eliminate the dirt that builds up on the exterior of the house.
2. Next you need to remove efflorescence, which is the white staining that often occurs on brick. When water interacts with the brick, the salt inside the material dries and leaves a salt deposit stain. These stains can be difficult to remove and will not usually disappear permanently with water alone. The brick can be cleaned by scrubbing with detergent and water, and rinsing thoroughly, or by power washing with water, taking care to not drive water into cracks or mortar joints. Next you need to treat any mildew on the brick. A three-to-one water and bleach mixture should do the job.
3. Then after the brick has dried thoroughly, it’s time for the primer. If you are using the same color paint, you might not need to prime. However, in most cases, priming will help the appearance of the paint job.
Priming also helps to ensure maximum resistance against efflorescence, and it help prevent mildew from reoccurring. The primer, which looks a lot like paint, seals the brick surface and prevents it from absorbing enormous amounts of paint later on. Brick is so porous that most brick homes need two coats of primer to properly cover the exterior.
4. Now it’s time to paint. For the best coverage, paint the brick using a high-grade exterior 100% latex house paint in flat or satin finish, depending on appearance desired. The shinier, or the more sheen, means that the painted surface will be more durable and easier to clean.
Brick can also be whitewashed to achieve a different look. Whitewash is a technique used to give brick an aged appearance, similar to an Old English cottage.
1. Follow the steps above for cleaning and priming your brick.
2. Use an exterior paint that is watered down. The proportion of water to paint is trial and error. Begin with 50-50; you can adjust the portions depending on the coverage you are trying to achieve. Apply the whitewash with a brush or roller to the brick.
One of the interesting aspects of whitewashing is that the homeowners can change the look by varying the thickness of the whitewash. The area where the whitewash is applied lightly will allow some of the brick color to show through. You can have a more vintage look by washing off some of the whitewash with the hose several hours after application, or even the next day, to expose more brick or parts of brick in random areas.
Don’t forget the trim, windows, and doors when you are painting the brick. It is especially important to take time to paint these areas of your home as well as the body of your house. These elements of your home attract the most attention and help to give you home character.
Painting can improve the appearance of discolored brick, and can help match the color of the brick to a home’s exterior trim or other architectural features. In addition, if the brick has already been painted, a coat of fresh paint can make you home new again.
If you do decide to paint the brick on your home, know that you’re making a commitment that you’ll have to stick with in the future. It is very tricky to remove paint from brick once it has been painted. Freshly applied paint can usually be removed by applying a chemical removal solution available at most hardware stores to the brick, allowing it to soften the paint; and then scraping with a stiff bristle brush. If your house is more than 50% brick, this is a long and tedious job.
The process of removing paint that has been in place for some time is complicated, and may require sandblasting. Brick that is sand-faced brick should not be sandblasted. You’ll need to consult with a professional to determine what type of brick you have, and to discuss the best way of removing the paint.
Remember, once brick has been painted, it’s a very difficult process to reverse. It is virtually impossible to return the brick to its original look once the porous brick has been painted. Homeowners should realize that, after they have painted the brick, this becomes a regular maintenance item, like painting the rest of the house.
