Cleaning old bricks--- Mold!

[WildGeeseLn]

Hi all,

Does anyone know of a good non-abrasive or harmful way to clean old bricks and treat them for mold?

My latest adventure has been sorting through a pile of old bricks from a former fireplace and cleaning them for re-use in reconstructing the fireplace. The stone mason thinks these bricks are original to the early 19th century house. They are super light and porous, and a beautiful orange color. I don't need them to be sparkling clean (I love the old, dirty look), but some of them have so much sand mortar worked into the face they are gray and, much more import, they recently started developing a blue mold. They got a bit damp since we moved them outside, and overnight started turning blue with mold.

I did a test of chlorine/water solution on a broken brick, and I'm not seeing any harm, other than a bit of a chlorine smell. Wondering if this is an OK treatment for the mold.

Thanks!
Colleen

[Mick_VT]

A bleach solution is what is usually used to kill mold, it should not harm bricks as far as I am aware, but if you are worried just rinse it off afterwards. Leaving them in the sun will help stop it reoccurring too.

Any signs of mold in the house?

[Don M]

I don't think that chlorine bleach should harm the bricks, we built a fireplace in our cider mill years ago & reused a lot of original bricks from a foundation wall for the fireplace surround & hearth. The interior firebox & chimney were built with new hardened bricks for safety. We had to knock off all the old sand mortar in order to reuse them but we didn't try to clean them beyond that..

[WildGeeseLn]

Thanks for the advice! The only mold I found in the house was in the upper sections of the window boxes, where they replaced the plaster with dry wall over lath. The mold on the bricks showed up literally overnight the day after they got a bit damp. I guess the spores must have been in the bricks to begin with, but thankfully I don't see it in the walls where the chimney was resting. I'm very allergic to mold, so I haven't been able to breath right since I started cleaning them Glad the bleach should be OK!

[SmellyHouse]

Bleach does not kill mold...it only kills the spores (or bleaches them). You need a fungicide (lordy don't ask me how I know).

The best one I found thru all the smelly house research and talking to dozens of professionals is Shockwave.

http://www.fiberlock.com/mold/disinfectants-mold.html

You can usually get it at a better industrial supply house.

Good luck!

[Mick_VT]

From what I have read laundry bleach is just fine for hard surfaces (such as brick), just not for highly porous surfaces wood. Brick is somewhat porous, but a lot more accessible to the bleach than wood.

[DRJR]

Bleach will not hurt bricks. Use a stiff brush to scrub the scuzz off, rinse well and let dry.

[phil]

I took out a ground level deck , filled the hole with crusher dust ( sharp sand and small rocks) I put about 6 to 8 inches then laid bricks and the bricks are at ground level. I figured it was so much sand that I didn't put in drains , wish I did and might open up some areas to lay drainage..

i used all sorts of antique brick , some clay , some fired brick some was more like stone.

when it freezes the clay ones are slippery and dangerous. the area looks like it would be really grippy so people walk out there not realizing what they are in for. The bricks wick up moisture and it magically invisibly freezes on them creating a real hazard.

I used bleach to clean them all this year and saw no bad come of that. I don't know how to deal with the issue of slipperyness other than maybe to put in more drainage. I guess I should just throw some sand on top this year


i found a lot of the brick that I got was from old fireplaces and things and had been sitting for years. if you have bricks with mortar on them that you aren't using right now I suggest not stacking them like lumber but instead burying them, time spend in the moist ground seems to remove the mortar. The time and moisture will work to your advantage.