Brick Cleaning: A Comprehensive Introduction

It is normal that the bricks you use for your house exterior, pavers, fireplace or flooring that they are bound to get dirty over a period of time and brick cleaning is a must if you want to retain its original beauty.

Cleaning Brick on the Exterior of Your Home

People go in for brick exteriors because they give a classic beauty for your home and also enhance its value of resale. The cost of construction of the house with brick exteriors is less because it does not call for plastering and painting. Further no special maintenance is required and termites do not affect them. The only problem could be that the bricks get discolored and need proper cleaning.

Precautions to be taken for brick cleaning

You must no doubt know how to clean the bricks; but it is much more important to know how not to clean the bricks.

1. Avoid using muriatic acid; otherwise it will discolor the bricks permanently or mottle the brick.

2. You should not sandblast the bricks although they look nice after sandblasting. Sandblasting harms the surface of the brick and once this happens water could permeate and damage the bricks. If your home is old the brick not only gets pitted but also the mortar joints become soft.

If you find that your home brick exteriors are soiled extremely you could go for the options of blasting with nutshells, rice hulls and Styrofoam balls instead of sandblasting. These processes apply less pressure on the brick but at the same time serving the cleaning purpose.

Cleaning Mixture

If your brick exterior is not highly soiled you could use the following mixture for brick cleaning.

• Mix 4 oz of naphtha soap flakes in one quart of hot water and dissolve the soap.
• Allow the mixture to cool, add ½ lb of powdered pumice  and ½ cup ammonia
• Apply this mixture on the brick exterior and allow to set for one hour
• Remove the mixture with a stiff brush and rinse
• Clean with dishwashing soap and rinse with warm water
How to Clean Brick Pavers
Patios, pathways and driveways use brick pavers and these get stained because of spillage of food, oil, molds etc. and they become slippery in wet conditions.
• Power washing – will remove stains and molds but be careful about the pressure applied because it could damage the bricks and mortar joints
• Bleach solution – is another option for mold cleaning; in this one part of bleach is mixed with 10 parts water and this solution is applied and rubbed. Make sure that this does not wash off your brick color. The best thing is to try on a test area.
• Oil or Petrol Products – to remove this you purchase a commercial cleaner or call for professional service.

Brick cleaning will give beauty to your home.