Removing paint or other coatings from brickwork
With our products you can completely remove the paint or coating, even from soft red bricks, without marking, damaging or removing the face of the brick. The dissolved paint is simply washed from the pores of the brick. With no abrasives to pit the surface, no wire brushes to scratch it, brickwork can be left looking completely original, as if it had never been painted.
Which Product?
- For masonry paints: Solvistrip
- For oil-based paints: Stripper 4-F or Kling Strip
- For emulsion paints: Solvistrip
- For textured coatings: (“Kennitex” etc.) Solvistrip, sometimes Stripper 4-F
- For bitumastic coatings: Solvistrip.
If the coating is very thick or is overlaid with other types of coatings, try different dwell times, including applying as thickly as possible and leaving overnight. Ambient conditions need to be cool and windless. Do a test patch first – trial packs are available from our online shop.
See also Limewash.
Important Points
Do tests first. On larger projects, make sure as far as possible that the area tested is representative of the whole area.
The basic principle when removing paint, coatings or grime from brickwork is that the coating or dirt should be dissolved or softened and then washed off.
Dirt and grime can often be softened adequately with water, while special products are available for stubborn or sulphated dirt (Please enquire).
For washing off use a pressure-washer, but only hold the lance close enough to the surface to wash it, not so near that it damages the brick.
The use of any sort of blasting, abrasives, wire brushes etc. for removing paint will cause irreparable damage to brickwork.
The paint/coating layer may comprise coats of different types of paint/coating, necessitating the use of more than one paint-remover (e.g. masonry paint over oil-based paint would require Solvistrip followed by Stripper 4-F or Kling Strip).
Tips
Stripper 4-F can be spray applied, dramatically reducing application time, with suitable airless spray equipment. (Please ask for details of specifications for airless sprayers).
For internal work on small areas, Kling Strip is usually easier to use than Stripper 4-F
Our VACWASH washer/vacuum cleaner attachment makes it possible to use a pressure washer in areas where the spray and runoff from a normal pressure-washer lance would be unacceptable.
Impervious exterior paint coatings are a common cause of what is often alarmingly rapid decay of exterior building surfaces, also of damp problems internally.
If it is essential to repaint, consider using limewash or lime paint, which are highly vapour permeable. For details of limewash and lime paint. Visit www.anglialime.com
