Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Any advice on how to remove paint from the motar between brick? (brick not painted, just mortar)?

Recently bought a home where someone decided to paint just the mortar black.Any advice on how to remove paint from the motar between brick? (brick not painted, just mortar)?
Professionals would use a power tool called ';grinder'; with a circular blade called a tuck-pointing blade, either made of ';carbide'; or steel with industrial diamonds around the rim. The carbide blades are cheep but will wear out fast and you will need to replace them often with new ones. The diamond tuck-point blade will last longer and work faster, but they are more expensive, maybe $200 or $300, but you probably won't need to replace it. Make sure you wear a quality dust-mask or respirator, and eye protective goggles.





The alternative is to wet the wall, completely saturate the wall with a garden hose until it cannot absorb any more water at all, then apply a professional paint stripper from a brick yard, ( NOT home depot or lowes or rona ) and watch the time to let it stay on there and the time to rinse it off. Pre-wetting the wall helps prevent the cleaning solution and/or the disolved paint or dirt from getting absorbed farther into the pores of the bricks. Make sure to use all safety equipment and precautions and respect the instructions or else serious problems can occur. There are paint strippers that work very easily and efficiently and specifically made for paint off of bricks or mortar joints. You will not find these in local common stores as I mentioned. You can get detailed info from www prosoco.com and find a brick distributor closest to you that will have it or order it in for you. Make sure you wear rubber gloves, eye-protective goggles, face shield perhaps, hat, waterproof jacket, etc...Do not use metal-bristle wire brush on brick or mortar with such paintstippers.Any advice on how to remove paint from the motar between brick? (brick not painted, just mortar)?
They make paint remover that will take off most anything, but once the paint is in the pores of the mortar, there is very little chance you can remove it without sandblasting it, or through the use of some means of abrasion. Good luck.

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