Help! I have blown bricks. Should I paint and seal them?

[jryze]

Hi there.

First post so thanks in advance for any help!

I have recently renovated a Victorian terrace. The bricks on the front of the house are in excellent condition but the whole of the back of the house has spalled/blown bricks. I need to do something about it but don't know what.

When I bought it the back of the house was rendered (very poorly). It needed removing as was a bad job and there were signs of damp. Unsurprisingly the bricks underneath were in poor condition, many of them blown.

My builder has now pointed it using a cement I think, in preparation for sealing and painting. But I'm worried sealing and painting could cause worse damage in future if bricks can't breathe?

Any help would be massively appreciated as I've done loads of research and can't find anything conclusive.

My builder is recommending sealing it with a stabilising solution then painting with breathable masonry paint. Do you think this is the best course of action? Something needs to be done as bricks look very bad at the moment (see attached photos).

Thanks a million for any help, I don't know what to do!

 

[footprints]

OK I'm no expert so this is just my opinion.

If it is sealed before painting what use is breathable paint?

I would feel that re-rendering or pebbledashing might be the best solution as blown bricks will tend to be very porous I suspect that's why it was rendered in the first place.

I would go for a specialist pebbledashing/rendering firm not a general builder.

I had my last place redone and it was a good job, the only thing I would say is avoid the brown pebbledashing as often it includes iron oxides and you can get rust stains forming. If you want to later you can still paint it tedious job though if it's pebbledashed

 

[jryze]

thanks footprints, very useful advice and i think you're right about the blown bricks being rendered initially because of a damp issue at some point.

i've spoken to the builder and it's a primer not a sealer that he suggests using, before usign breathable masonry paint.

the walls are showing no signs of damp despite the recent weather so i'm hoping that i won't need to re-render entirely but am open to the possibility (and financial hit ).

for aesthetic reasons i'd like to keep the brick if at all possible as it's more in keeping with the street, i just want to make sure that if i do prime and paint i won't exacerbate the problem?

i guess i can always render over paint a few years down the line if problems persist? or maybe that's a stupid idea?!

 

[footprints]

I think you would have to strip the paint if you wanted to render later.

I see from your profile you are in london, are they the lovely yellow stocks? it is a shame to cover them, but painting will spoil the effect anyway.

At least we are not in the era of mock stone cladding anymore, that ruined so many lovely facades.

 

[jryze]

Yes they are the yellow bricks, they would be lovely (and luckily still are on the front) but are in v bad condition on the back so need covering somehow unfortunately. at least there's no stone cladding involved I guess

Have tried to upload images three times but when i do it tells me I have no images in my album

 

[WhatDoIknow]

Youtube is marvellous source of info...

London Bricks.... seems do-able

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• WhatDoIknow
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• WhatDoIknow
• 8 Feb 2014
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• WhatDoIknow
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stonefx walls ????? found on youtube. it may help.