Replies

1. 
   Amish Electrician | Aug 10, 2010 05:59pm | #1

   There's really not much of a 'trick' to painting brick, at least not in the technical sense. Painting brick witout the job looking like (insert nasty term here) is another matter, though.

   In technical terms, you need the brick to be thoroughly dry. Oven dry. Otherwise, moisture trapped within will pop the paint, and flake off chips of brick, with every freeze cycle. Any technique that does not involve a paint sprayer is pure sadism.

   What no paint can address is the texture to brick, and the resulting interplay of shadows on the surface. That's why so many 'faux brick' finishes look so cheesy.

   This leaves you with two basic color choices: plain white or basic brick. Many, many buildings in St. Louis have had the red brick painted ... well, brick red .... even in 'historic' areas, and they look fine. This is often done where 'new' brick does not match the original.

2. 
   Piffin | Aug 12, 2010 06:13pm | #2

   Some brick is made to be painted and others can be damaged by painting, in that the paint will trap moisture which will freeze and split the faces off.

   So if your brick is one of the more porous ones, you need it to be able to breathe.

   Whitewash is understood in various ways, but the old definition was simply a mix of lime, water, and a fixative. The lime was actually good for the brick and helped the mortar with self-healing.

   But when most modern folks speak of a whitewash, they too often mean just a stain of thinned down white paint to look like real whitewash.

3. 
   barmil | Aug 15, 2010 10:02pm | #3

   You usually can't "unpaint"

   You usually can't "unpaint" brick, so be sure this is what you really want to do.