To Treat or Not to Treat…that is the question
I just read through all of the masonry posts as far back as they go… Here is a link to our question but the answers don’t give the full story… http://bstoner.wpengine.com/forum/archives/2006/07/exposed_brick.php#comments We need to know how / if we should treat the exposed interior brick walls in our apartment. There has been some conflicting info….
I just read through all of the masonry posts as far back as they go…
Here is a link to our question but the answers don’t give the full story…
http://bstoner.wpengine.com/forum/archives/2006/07/exposed_brick.php#comments
We need to know how / if we should treat the exposed interior brick walls in our apartment. There has been some conflicting info.
TREAT THE BRICK
The post above suggests several products but other posts suggest that if you seal brick walls you can trap moisture inside and cause many more problems in the future. If water tries to escape, efflorescence (salt deposits) could cause the wall to look really ugly or if the efflorescence stays in the wall it can cause the wall to crumble (spalling).
Are their products that allow you to treat the brick without causing serious problems in the future?
DON’T TREAT BRICK
If the wall is left untreated, it will continue to shed lots of dust.
Would love ideas from you about how others handled this?
There are sealers that still allow the wall the breath but they are considerably more expensive.
Trust me and this is from experience, you don’t want to have to clean up the huge amount of dust an unsealed brick wall creates!!!
sealing bricks from the inside is not recommended for the reasons you mention and thus the reason they are left unsealed when built; however in some situations sealing is required such as restaurants where cleaning is needed for tables against them. If a problem exist such as powdering mortar, etc that problem should be addressed rather then sealing the bricks to keep the dust from flying around. Otherwise, if no water or moisture issues exist, choosing to seal with various products shouldn’t be a concern; but a non-issue today can become one in the future…just keep that in mind