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The rear brick facade of my limestone has a couple coats of this concrete/paint stuff called thoroseal on it, which is peeling and cracking in a few places (tho generally holding up okay). I know brick masonry needs to breathe, and ideally I’d have it stripped and repointed, but that isn’t in my budget (and I’ve heard it damages the brick to try and remove thoroseal). The original job is patchy and very ugly, because they thorosealed the bottom of the house a different color than the top.

So I was going to either a) wire brush off the loose parts and put another coat of thoroseal on or b) brush off the loose spots and put a couple coats of elastomeric masonry/brick exterior latex (something like valspar duramax.) Any idea which would be preferable? Can thoroseal be painted over, or do I have to keep coating with he same battleship gray stuff forever?

Anyone have any experience with this?