ivy and paint on brick

[flimmy 14]

I have been doing some searching and have found some stuff but wanted to know if anybody has come up with anything else.

Here is a measage I recived from a guy I know from 4 wheeling. He asked me to give him a price on cleaning the brick. I'm sure someone has run into this before. I talked to him on the phone tonight and he said he tried his sears pressure washer and it did nothing to get it off. Does anyone know what will work ? btw the part of the house that was painted was red wood and has now been covered with vinyl siding.

Thanks

" Flimmy,

Whoever owned my house before me painted the siding with the wrong paint and there are white streaks all down my bricks. Like a whitewash. Can that be washed off? Also my chimney had ivy grown all over it, which I tore off and there are little root lookin' things all through the brick. "

[Celeste 341]

Think of the paint on the brick as a grafitti removal - yes there are chems that will do it. If the brick and the mortar are in good shape, you can carefully try a turbo but those "ivy feet" can be enormously stubborn and often won't be removed.

[Aplus 525]

The best way to remove the ivy from the brick is to first chop off the vines at the ground, and see what you can pull off the brick, which won't be much.

Let the vines dry on the brick for a few weeks, until they are brittle.

Then hit em' with about 1000psi, if that won't do it, no sense in cranking up the pressure and risk damaging the mortar. Try prespraying with your housewash mix to soften up the dried vines a bit, and try washing again.

Some I've had success removing, and others, not. I think it depends on the type of brick and how long the vines were growing.

Here's a pic of one that removed sucessfully.

[flimmy 14]

I talked to Mike at EaCo Chem today and he said that there Stripper Cleam will get it off. He said you can roll it on , let it dwell overnight and it should break the bond the roots have and you can then wash it off. I am getting a sample to try on a small spot. As for the white oxidation from the aluminum he is sending me a sample of Safe Restore. Tony I will try my house wash on a small spot too. Thanks

[dave 14]

soak the ivy roots in straight bleach i used 12.5% soaked the roots using a paint brush keep wet for 30 to 45 min roots should be soft and mushy and pressure wash off.

[flimmy 14]

here is are a few pic's I took yesterday.

[Celeste 341]

We love EacoChem products - we use NMD80 all the time and have been successful with some brick restoration with GSR (which is essentially SafeRestore with oxalic in it) We have looked at the stripper cream but it was for a historic property paint removal job - it's was expensive and pretty serious stuff. From a pricing perspective, I would try the soaking with bleach and then as Tony suggested, careful use of a turbo to take them off.

Celeste

[flimmy 14]

Celeste , the good thing about EaCo Chem is they are only 1 hr from me. So I can drive there and save all the shipping cost.

[Celeste 341]

That's awesome - they're great people!