father jack i love my brick

The pros and cons of painting exterior brick walls. Should you paint them or not?

BRICKS! In the better weather, many home owners often think seriously about updating or refreshing the external appearance of their homes with a coat of fresh paint but what if you have bare brick walls and you want to paint them?

The most important word to remember about painting exterior brick walls: permanence. It’s a one way street and there is no going back!

If you paint, or plan to have painted, a brick wall that has not been painted previously, it is a permanent finish.

You can’t remove it once it has been applied.

This also applies to exterior wall spray finishes, trowel applied external render coatings and the like.

How do you paint a brick wall on a house, and should you?

Wall coatings for bricks are outside wall finishes that are designed to be semi permanent.

Although, there are various products available like paint strippers and brick acid, they will never get the walls totally looking like new again. If you are considering painting exterior brick walls for the first time, please be sure that this is what you really want.

This is because you can’t change your mind once it has been done!

In general home painting cannot be “undone”, only the British weather will do that, and over some time too.

The only exception to the above, I would suggest, is listed buildings where previous owners have painted, and you are looking to get the outside restored again.

This is possible but has to be done by specialist company and can be very expensive.

Please note, we do NOT offer a garden wall painting service, please do NOT contact us to repair and paint tiny areas such as garden walls! Thank you

If the building is listed, it can also mean lots of British bureaucracy to get it done too!

Some times bricks can benefit from a clear weatherproof wall covering, which will stabilise the surface and restore the bricks without changing how they look.

Painting brand new bricks is not recommended.

If you have a wall with brand new brick why on earth would you WANT to paint it and cover over that nice clean exterior wall surface?

The respected home improvement magazine House Beautiful noted that……”Brand-new brick and mortar can exude a powdery substance, so you want to give it at least a month to cure before painting it,” ………… “Otherwise, it’s going to be super chalky and not hold on to the paint as well.”

man painting exterior brick walls

 

Ongoing maintenance of brick walls

The day you apply the last coat of paint to the bricks on your home, is the first day paint degradation begins. Sooner or later the bricks will have to be painted again, maybe sooner than you expected.

In fact Dulux themselves say that a wall made of brand new brick should be left for at least 28 days before applying any paint to it.

Any house in Britain that has paint applied on the outside walls, will see the effects of paint being broken down, after the first winter.

Home improvement legend Bob Villa said that to wait at least a year before painting a brick wall!

If you are resolute in keeping the external walls of your house in tip-top condition, upon painting the brick walls, you have just committed yourself to repainting them, or having someone paint the walls, every single year until you move.

Or until the house eventually falls down, whichever is the soonest!

It is worth noting that it is very easy to get a house painting quote from us, we are only a click away.

You will spend far more in the long run painting your brick over and over again then you would ever have spent in up-grading to brick work on your home in the first place.

Painting brick also needs preparation, so power washing the wall gets rid of any loose material or dust, which would mix in with the paint and look terrible once painted.

Any loose mortar joints (pointing) would also need to be addressed before painting a brick wall.

There are special primer paints made for painting brick walls that should be used beforehand, or any paint applied to a brick wall will simply be sucked into the wall, like a sponge, leaving a patchy and undesirable finish.

So a quick fix, like painting bricks you don’t particularly like, can often be an expensive mistake. Bricks will need to be re-painted more frequently than the rest of your home. This is because of the risk of water entry which can cause severe damage.

Efflorescence is also a major problem you may come across if you plan to paint a brick wall.

Dulux says that Check your brickwork for any defects. A build up of white crystal salts on the surface is called efflorescence and needs to be removed before painting. To remove any efflorescence, wipe down the bricks with a 5% solution of white vinegar and water, hose down then allow to dry.

Brick walls suffer water damage

The next point to remember is this: bricks need to breathe.

I mean that bricks “breathe” naturally expelling moisture from the wall.

When you coat them with paint you have effectively closed the pores of the bricks preventing them from breathing. In a perfect world this doesn’t sound like a bad idea because it effectively keeps the water out as well.

poor condition bricks eroded
How to repair bricks

In real world situations though, masonry paint will begin to crack fairly quickly

Minute hairline fissures will open on the wall surface, allowing water to enter the masonry system with no way to escape.

Unfortunately,  at this point it is hard for you to recognise or see the effects of the water entry, as it is hidden behind the paint.

As each freeze-thaw cycle comes and goes real deterioration of the brick takes place and by the time the problem manifests itself, the damage has already been done.

Large portions of the wall area will have ‘brick face de-lamination’, or spalling, and many more areas you can’t see will have de-lamination but will be held together by the paint.

A close inspection for damage will be necessary. I cannot stress enough how important it is that any paint or coating that is applied to your exterior walls, must be breathable, similar in properties to a human skin.

What do I mean by breathable paint?

Well, a quality paint or wall coating system, has to breathe. It does that by microporous technology. This technology allows damp and moisture out but not in.

When humans exercise, they sweat, its the body trying to cool itself, and this happens with a house. But when a human takes a bath, they don’t soak water up like a sponge and that’s how a good quality paint or coating should behave.

If it does and the paint is applied by professionals, there will no problems at all.

Now you not only have your ongoing paint maintenance to deal with but deteriorated brick repairs must be done as well.

So, you can see how the seemingly simple remedy of painting your bricks to change its colour can have far reaching implications and consequences.

Painting a previously painted brick wall requires a ton of prep work before you even open a can of paint.

Brick wall of a house in poor condition

If you must go this route then I would suggest that you contact a local masonry repair expert for advice on how to protect external masonry before painting.

They’ll also be able to advise on how to proceed with the painting process.

Looking at the photo above, it’s obvious that plenty of repair and prep work is needed before painting this wall.

The bricks have suffered from frost damage as you can see, and many have simply fallen out.

This is due to unsuitable and non weatherproof paint being applied to the wall, which allowed moisture in, which froze during the winter months, expanded, and then pushed the flat face of the brick away from the wall.

In extreme cases the brick much be replaced, not an easy job, or alternatively mortar must be used to recreate the flat face of the brick before painting commences.

The only way to avoid the above is to either have the house pebbledashed, which is now out of fashion, or to have someone come around every single year and paint it.

Yearly paining is expensive in the long run, so your best options is to call the Never Paint Again team on (0800) 970 4928.

We are house painting experts who can show you a much better solution for painting exterior brick walls. With us, you’ll not have to paint again for 20 years!

A much better way to deal with a very rough textured wall is for us to paint the pebbledash with our wall coating system and an estimate for a wall coating is free.

There’s no catch, the quote is totally free, and you won’t feel obligated to buy from us if we come and visit your premises. We’re not that type of company.

Why not contact us for a free house painting quote, or for more information about painting exterior brick walls.

You can contact us for an informal chat on 0800 970 4928 (mon – Sat)

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