Restoring exposed brick
Does anyone have someone who does good work and reasonably priced to restore open exposed brick in a brownstone? Also does anyone know how much it can range per square foot?
skeer126
in About Brooklyn 11 years and 7 months ago
12
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12 replies
brooklyn2000 | 11 years and 7 months ago
You could try A&A Innovative Masonry. we used his services a few times in various projects in our home. He has restored the walls to match quite nicely – and for a decent price as well. His number 347 307 4725
annep | 11 years and 7 months ago
My brick looked exactly like that — I ended up using a sealer called Enviroseal 7 (It is manufactured by Hydrozo Corporation). It seals the brick so it doesn’t shed everywhere but keeps it looking exactly the same. Here’s an earlier thread on the same topic that might help, too: http://brownstoner.staging.wpengine.com/forum-archive/2011/03/repointing-mort/
skeer126 | 11 years and 7 months ago
Green mountain, i appreciate your info but i am still in a perdicament here in which I need to do something with it. Its either cover it with sheetrock (which i am not prepared to do because i like the old rustic look) or leave it be i which case i just want to make the mortar not crumble everywhere. So what you are aying is if I go ahead and seal it, it will not be able to breathe and function properly so it will be bad long term…so I am guessing dont do anything to it and do what pif three suggests (by the way, thanks for your reply pig three) which is just scrub the brick and linseed oil it up? I dont want to make the wrong decisions here and am nervous to do something i may not like
pigthree | 11 years and 7 months ago
boiled linseed oil will do the job. Is this wall exposed on the other side? If not, there are no real moisture issues unless there is water coming down the chimney. The brick does not need resoration or pointing. A good scrub with a stiff brush will clean the brick. The linseed oil will allow it to breath properly.
Rick | 11 years and 7 months ago
Lots of people like the rustic look. Seems in fashion for the last 20+ years. But I’m with you Greenmountain. These builder bricks were never intended to be seen and exposing them gives you nothing more than the look of living in an old factory building.
greenmountain | 11 years and 7 months ago
Thanks for the picture. I always enjoy seeing how a building was built. Chimneys are not a specialty of mine, but I am interested because I am sometimes asked to work on fireplaces. But I usually install tile with mortar, and less often brick with mortar. I presume the large rectangle to the left is where workers passed through the row of houses during construction, and the small one above the mantel was a more recent repair. Do both rectangles have the same type of mortar? Old brick is softer than new brick and it was installed with softer mortar made with lime, not Portland cement. I understand old lime mortar requires a type of processed limestone, which is no longer quarried and manufactured in North America, but the cement is available (expensive) from England for historic plaster and brick mortar. The weight of your wall is compressing your bricks and mortar and the materials work perfectly together. Even though it seems crumbly to you, it bears the load, absorbs vibration, separates your house from the next, and does everything else asked of it. Until now. You came along and want it as part of your living space. With every truck passing on your street, every knock in your house, the bricks and mortar move a tiny bit, yet stay strong. The pressure on a hard, less compressible, chunk of modern Portland cement mortar, if some bricks were pointed with it, could damage the bricks around it, and weaken the whole structure. Brushing out the loose particles of mortar and clay dust off the brick faces, and “sealing” or stabilizing what remains with a hardening liquid could make you feel better for a few years, but I am saying it would be better for your house if left alone behind the original old plaster wall – plaster also made with lime, not the modern type. What is done in your house is done, and you will not easily get the fully functioning wall back, I am suggesting to other Brownstoners, to not follow the example in your photograph. Do not strip historic plaster away to expose historic brick.
Rick | 11 years and 7 months ago
Brick would have to be washed and probably mortar tuckpointed ( that may change the rustic look ) You could just put a clear satin sealer on it. That will help it from shedding.
skeer126 | 11 years and 7 months ago
Hye Green mountain..i am not exactly sure what is being said here. My mortar in between the exposed brick is easily fraying and if you touch it, it just falls apart. Are you saying that I shouldn’t get someone to restore it? I want the brick to still be exposed but maybe just cleaned up and sealed..i am not sure of the process but something needs to be done. Take a look at the pic I have attached
greenmountain | 11 years and 7 months ago
I advise home owners to resist the temptation to expose brick by removing historic plaster. Original plaster, often with an air layer between the brick and lathe, is more energy efficient and a more effective sound insulator than brick, and more so than sheet rock. It is easier to resurface than replace. Removing it dislodges otherwise stable lead paint (with other toxic pigments) and distributes some of it in your building, trailing behind the truck to the dump, blowing out of the dump, and for all to breath who dispose of it for you. Period plaster is part of the design of our older homes with elegant moldings, floors and ceilings installed up to the finished surface, which rarely look right again after the brick is exposed. Plastering is not entirely a “lost art,” but the durability and character of “wet wall,” conforming to unique shapes skillfully, and uninterrupted by seams, is expensive and laborious to replace. Still, it can be easily repaired and large sections are worth patching. It is hard to love drywall, but plaster is charming. Brick, on the other hand is a breathing material, equalizing interior and exterior humidity levels. Sealing brick and mortar to keep down the dust in a living space, or on the exterior, can damage it causing moisture to accumulate behind coated surfaces, and migrate to adjacent wood. Original plaster walls are functional assets, usually better kept than discarded.
metalwork | 11 years and 7 months ago
Thank you skeer126
skeer126 | 11 years and 7 months ago
Very cool Metalwork…I will definitely give him a call. If anyone else has another person Id like to get a couple of different quotes and the different finishes available.
metalwork | 11 years and 7 months ago
Kegan 1 347 623 4216\. Experience, hard working, reasonable and reliable. I recommend his service.