How to improve appearance of a brick wall

[MrHfromBath]

Hi, I would like to make some improvements to the appearance of the rear of my house (built c1900). The front is stone and the rear brick. It has something stuck to it, as you will see from the photo. There are several theories about what it is, from old coats of paint (seems too thick to me), to lime pulled out of the bricks by some ivy. It is very thick in places and does just scrape off with elbow grease.

I wondered what people recommend to basically clean the entire wall without damaging the bricks. So far I have tried scraping and jet washing, which haven't worked. I also had a sand blaster look at it and he said that as it is mainly just exposed brick sand blasting would damage it.

Any ideas?

All advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

[handyman77]

Wheres the pics?

 

[Alastairreid]

View media item 45317

 

[MrHfromBath]

Sorry a bit of a problem there, but the photo is now above. Thanks.

 

[bludger]

You could just have it rendered. If you do the donkey work of scraping everything off and raking out the pointing, to give a good grip, it would make the rendering much less expensive.

It looks like the sides are rendered already so you could ask the renderer about matching them to the new coating in future if money is tight.

Then, you could lay a nice patio or good pavings slabs to complete the job.

 

[handyman77]

Try brick cleaner on a small patch, it may need a couple if applications.
The get it repointed.

 

[MrHfromBath]

Thanks, I am not sure how render would work considering the stone around the windows, as they are flush with the windows. Also it's a reasonable sized wall and I reckon rendering it would cost a lot. The sides are rendered and would ideally be re-rendered, but I am making do for now.

I will try the brick cleaner first and see how that goes. I haven't used it before.

I was thinking of raking out the pointing and cleaning it myself and getting someone to do the re-pointing. I guess I would need scaffolding for the job, which is another load of cash.

Yes as suggested it does need someby Bludger it does need a patio and that is my plan after I have got the back wall sorted. I will also be paitning the windows, guttering and fascia's soon. The front looks great, but the back needs some real attention now.

Thanks, as I said I'll buy some brick cleaner as suggested.

 

[handyman77]

http://gbr.sika.com/en/solutions_products/02/02a024/02a024sa06.html

On this list there is general brick cleaner and a stronger cement remover if the general cleaner dont touch it! Make sure you wear gloves, cos its gonna burn!