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June 16, 2009
Brick in Back
Here is the back of my house. We just had it pointed and the person waterproofed the upper red section with a clear coat. We are trying to figure out what to do with the bottom, blue section. I am asking my Dad (who is here helping) to see if he can scrape/grind the paint off and then we can waterproof the original brick. Another option is painting each brick with a coat of red paint to match the red paint up above. (FYI, the upper section was painted a similar red to what the brick is, and portions of the red paint are there and some are missing, but it looks generally good). I don't want to lose the brick look by slopping a whole nother coat of paint over the lower section. Thoughts?
Comments
You could have the lower section powerwashed. A good application of paint remover for a few days ahead of that will do the trick. You will likely have to have it repointed after that though.
Posted by: daveinbedstuy at June 16, 2009 4:16 PM
I wouldn't scrape the brick - it'll make it more porous.
Posted by: Arkady at June 16, 2009 4:30 PM
"We are trying to figure out what to do with the bottom, blue section"
Why not make it generic boring red to match the rest of the boro? How sad. The mottled blue looked wonderful.
Posted by: cmu at June 16, 2009 6:07 PM
It looks kind of cool the way it is to me. . .
Posted by: IronBalls at June 16, 2009 9:35 PM
CMU and IronBalls, you may think it looks wonderful, but it looks better in the picture than it does in real life. The blue does NOT match and the paint is super chipped, flakey, and damaged. Underneath the blue is also a brown paint and some sections of white concrete. So when you're sitting outside in the backyard, it looks cheap and trashy and overpainted. Would you throw on 4 different colors on your house willingly? I hope not...
UPDATE: We've continued to try to grind off the paint and it has yielded a red brick with tiny blue specks that we can't get out. That looks nice enough as is. We will clear water coat when done.
Thanks for your thoughts.
Posted by: theklahy at June 17, 2009 12:46 PM
There is a fair amount of debate about painting or sealing brick at all. Brick is porous and in time the sealant or paint breaks down and water will get into the brick. Once the brick is sealed, they will take a long time to dry out if they get wet. This is especially a problem in the winter when water trapped in the brick can freeze an create spalling.
Posted by: JoeBushwick at June 17, 2009 2:07 PM
Why are you spending so much money on the back of your house?
Posted by: vanyali at June 17, 2009 2:57 PM
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