I bought a bucket of Peel Away 7 to try to remove some latex paint off a brick wall on the side of my house. This wall is made of two layers of brick with furring strips and plaster on the other side. The brick is old common brick, rough, pitted and pourous. I called the manufacturer to get some more details and they told me I would probably have to power wash the wall after removing the product. Do I run a risk of damaging the wall by injecting water into the brick? I don’t care if I blow out some of the mortar, I’ll probably have it tuckpointed.
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We cleaned a large and very dirty brick chimney by blasing it, and I think they used walnut shell instead of sand although I wasn't there to watch. It looked dang near new when done. I think pressure washing is a relatively low-power technique that's good for getting dirt off of houses before painting... not sure how well it would clean brick.
I think it will depend on what kind of pressure washer you use, the tip on the end of the washer wand, and your washing technique. I have a small pressure washer, one of those little things you get at Home Depot that doesn't have a huge amount of pressure, and last summer I used it on a brick wall along the back of my yard to try to clean off some graffiti. I found that if I used a too tip that was too narrow and pointed the wand directly at the wall, it would start to blow holes in the brick. When I used a fan tip and held the wand at an angle, there weren't any problems.
Thanks, I'll practice on a part of the wall that is not too noticable.