Paint on Brick

[nhguy]

You can remove paint on brick with lye. Hot water, mix in lye, slowly, it will pop and bubble. You will need eye protection, old clothes and black rubber chemical rated gloves. The gloves are important because your figure nails will turn black if you don't use them. Brush the solution on the brick and it pretty much melts away. I scrubbed it with a natural bristle floor brush. Plastic of any kind gets eaten by the lye solution. Rinse with clean water when done. A man that owned an antique shop told me about it, I couldn't believe it would work. Our walk-in fireplace was painted in three layers, black, gray and red, they all came off in one shot. Good Luck if you try it. Don't forget the gloves..........

[Vala]

You can remove paint on brick with lye. Hot water, mix in lye, slowly, it will pop and bubble. You will need eye protection, old clothes and black rubber chemical rated gloves. The gloves are important because your figure nails will turn black if you don't use them. Brush the solution on the brick and it pretty much melts away. I scrubbed it with a natural bristle floor brush. Plastic of any kind gets eaten by the lye solution. Rinse with clean water when done. A man that owned an antique shop told me about it, I couldn't believe it would work. Our walk-in fireplace was painted in three layers, black, gray and red, they all came off in one shot. Good Luck if you try it. Don't forget the gloves..........

Wow I might just give that a try, since my foundation is painted on the outside. Does it affect the [lime] mortar in any way?

[Mick_VT]

Go real careful with lye, it can cause some very nasty burns

[Kashka-Kat]

My favorite solution to a problem is to, wherever possible, find a way to re-define it as a non-problem. Some may call this laziness, I call it having a gazillion OTHER THINGS on my to-do list to occupy my time

So with that in mind- I think Id just have it be rustic - distressed finishes on wood, brick, anything is actually quite trendy now, and I gotta say I love old stuff that shows the layers of history. (In fact that's why Im finding it really difficult to paint some of my walls - it would mean never again seeing the original brown calcimine paint or the lines of the crack repairs I did.)

You could first scrub off all loose paint and dirt with wire brush and hot TSP water - if theres latex that's often enough to soften and get it to peel off. Im not sure Id use stripper on it - wouldn't it absorb into the pores of the brick? That stuff is difficult enough to remove from wood. I dunno, maybe not - could you experiment? Id take off what I could but then not bother with removing every last trace of it - leave on the white staining - perhaps touch up or even it out with additional whitewash stain...?

The lye sounds good too - IF you can get it down to bare red brick and IF it doesn't dissolve or erode the brick.............? If it doesn't give spectacular results (ie clear, clean brick) would you want to put that much effort into it (and possibly physical pain )

[nhguy]

I have some photos of before and after when I did that fireplace, I'll have to find them and scan them. I would also suggest having windows open as the smell was pretty strong. I did this 30 years ago, so I was in my mid 20's at the time. There was no ill effect on the brick or lime mortar joints. The only thing that happened was the paint was gone. The goggles, old clothes and the chemical rated gloves are the equipment you'll need. Again hot water, mix the Red Devil lye in slowly, stir with a stick to mix well. It's nasty stuff so be careful... I used it once to strip a floor, it did an amazing job, but 5F5 stripper was easier, I just had to try it.

[nhguy]

Go real careful with lye, it can cause some very nasty burns

Hey I still had eight fingers when I was done......Kidding it went fine, but caution is advised.

[Mick_VT]

Go real careful with lye, it can cause some very nasty burns

Hey I still had eight fingers when I was done......Kidding it went fine, but caution is advised.

There was a horrific attempted murder case here in VT a few years back where a guy severely beat up his girlfriend and then poured lye over her. She survived but was burned and disfigured very severely by it. The very mention of lye sends shivers down my spine since.

[nhguy]

Go real careful with lye, it can cause some very nasty burns

Hey I still had eight fingers when I was done......Kidding it went fine, but caution is advised.

There was a horrific attempted murder case here in VT a few years back where a guy severely beat up his girlfriend and then poured lye over her. She survived but was burned and disfigured very severely by it. The very mention of lye sends shivers down my spine since.

YIKES. There is a horror movie where a person used lye to make soap from the victims, then things turned even creepier. It was a movie though, so not real life right? I don't remember the name of it as I'm not much of a horror movie fan.

[BungalowMo]

Question on the lye...is it Red Hot Devil Lye??

lye.jpg (13.03 KiB) Viewed 774 times

If this stuff is fine...what is the mix ratio? Do you use a regular paintbrush to apply?
Mix it in a can?

I have tried a gazillion things to get the paint splatter off the brick around my porch trim & the windows. I swear, the PO paid someone $2.99 to paint the trim years ago!

[kelt65]

My 2 cents ... if the brick is a solid exterior wall, which it looks to be, I would not paint it unless I could find a moisture permeable paint. Moisture is absorbed by the brick and the mortar and it has to have a place to go. I suspect a lot of painted brick will be cracking in the near future, or else the paint will crack or peel. It was meant to be left bare or covered in lime plaster (which is moisture permeable). I think it's really dumb to seal up old masonry.