Brick Restoration project

[Celeste 341]

This is a brick job that we bid today....the brick has been cleaned every three months (by someone else) for several years at $200 a whack for right at 1200 sq ft. It's also 50+ years old. We're trying some new chemicals, including some that are supposed to inhibit the green growths for about 5 years. Looks like fun, huh?

[squirtgun 122]

Ok where is the pic?....or ...........Did ya'll clean it that good?..........LOL.

[Celeste 341]

I had to edit.....my pics were too big....drives me craazy! Celeste

[staudend 14]

Try prosoco.com or eacochem.com. I'm leaning toward eacochem because their saferestore is some really cool stuff but more expensive at $75 per 5 gallons. It works awesome though on a bunch of stuff, including brick (according to their manual). I'm pretty gung-ho about this stuff because it kicked butt on a limestone restoration project I anticipated to take a few days and only took me 8 hours. See if they make a brick sealer to keep water out. I'm pretty ignorant when it comes to stone sealers. Nick

[squirtgun 122]

"Someone Else" was taking the owner of this property for a ride.They should be ashamed,but instead,I'm sure they were laughing all the way to the bank.After ya'll get done cleaning it the owner will be thrilled that it looks so good,yet very angry that the other contractor took advantage of them.

[Beth n Rod 1,279]

I have pretty liberal settings on the photo upload...if you are at 72 dpi and the photo is like...4x5 full screen you should be ok. Hope this helps. I can get the exact file size limits for you if needed. :groovy3:

Beth

[PressurePros 249]

That walkway must be a real party to walk on when its wet.

[James 625]

I don't know that might be a fair price to maint. After the first cleaning there are some spray's to impede " moldy hawn". Bleach for one and there are some copper solutions you can spray on.

[seymore 90]

Will just bleach not work for cleaning the bricks?

It's kinda hard not to beat the $1/gal price for chems.

Does a clear sealer for bricks and masonry have mildewcide in it?

[Celeste 341]

Nick - thanks for the suggestion (LOL I was the one sending you to eacochem for your alma mater job)

I don't know if the previous pressure washer was taking advantage or didn't know what he was doing to the surface. She was perfectly happy to have us come do the same thing every three months because that's what she thought she was supposed to do. (Anyone seeing Carolina ProWash working on educating the customer????) We are offering a full restoration at just a moderate amount over what she was paying annually. This will cut her annual maintenance down dramatically and improve the longevity of her sidewalks. This is also in the high profile neighborhood in our town. The entire brick driveway across the street is just as mossy & green - they will have to keep up the same appearance as the kids across the street :)

The plan is to use Eacochem's Saferestore to bring the color of the brick back to it's best. We are looking at two siloxine sealants, one by Prosoco and one by Diedrich Technologies. Each is supposed to be water resistant but Prosoco H40 is also supposed to strengthen the old mortar. We want to push for the sealer that will prevent further erosion of the brick. The mildew, mold & other green stuff preventative is called Anti-Growth - order through Sherwin Williams - supposed to last for multiple years. Wer're comfortable with the cleaning, restoration, sealing but the question of the hour is, at what stage would he Anti-growth be applied? If applied before the sealer, it is under the sealer and can't do anything about the green stuff. If applied after the sealer, it can't penetrate into the brick and will just wash away with the first heavy dew or rain. Product mfg says you are not supposed to add anything to their product however, he's heard of mixing the anti-growth to the sealer being done...again, against mfgr instructions for use. Hmmm, suggestions - experience???

Celeste

[seymore 90]

I wouldn't think the anti-growth would work under the sealer.If it's sealed the mildew would grow on the top of the bricks

After you seal it you might just have to do a light cleaning once a year maby.I would think it would be minor mildew and not to the extent it looks now.

.05 worth :cool:

[squirtgun 122]

I say before the sealer.

Reason:Once sealed the moss and mold won't be able to attach to the brick as easy.Applying the mildewcide before will kill any deep inbedded moss and mold roots and prevent growth from under the sealer.Then a light maint. cleaning will be to remove whatever has tried to grow on the sealer.

[James 625]

Putting anything under the sealer won't do anything execpt over kill . Sealing is a good option makes for easy maint. Just make sure its not slippery use an ( impregnator). Thats not a bad word is it ?

[Mike Smith 14]

Prosoco makes an excellant brick sealer. They have several siloxanes that work great. I have a maintenance agreement for a customer that has alot of brick walkways and patios in a high profile neighborhood. I have been in charge of this for 5 years now and we used to have to clean 2 times a year with extremely heavy mildew and mold. 2 years ago I brought up the idea of a sealer and I cleaned the bricks wiith 6% bleach and 175 degree water with a surface cleaner. Came out great and we sealed it the following week(job was cleaned on Friday, sealed on Monday) Now the customer calls once a year to clean and there is only a skim of mildew and no moss growing on the bricks. We used prosoco's weather seal siloxane.

[Celeste 341]

Our bid was accepted (yippee!!!!) Here are some pics of the cleaning. She really wants us to put down the Anti-Growth so down it's going. We'll seal in a couple of weeks when we do a full house wash :)

Celeste

[RyanH 14]

Nice work Celeste. I really like these types of neighborhoods....there are a few job offers in NC I thought about taking a look at....if I could find a stead like this to stay I'd be happy.

RyanH

[seymore 90]

Great Job Celeste! :cool: