Cleaning up Bricks After Pointing

[saffer]

I have just finished re pointing my chimney, most of it looks fine, however there are a few areas were I got a little pointing mix on the bricks. Is there a way of getting this off? I thought of buffing it off with a wire brush but that would clean the old bricks too and I would end up having to do the entire chimney. Someone has mentioned an acid wash? Is there such a thing?

[oilman]

It's available at builders merchants, sold as brick cleaner. It's hydrochloric acid.

[saffer]

thanks oilman, found it at:

http://www.greenham.com/c/pl/58204/Cleanline-Brick-Cleaner

It is working perfectly and more importantly my wife is much happier with the job.

[Thermo]

another way of doing it is to rub the face with a harder brick than the ones you have used

[Diyisfun]

The chances are you are to close to the job & know & can see the poor part.. When you look in a few weeks time, you will wonder why you wanted to clean it, although I can understand why you want it corrected.

[saffer]

Thanks for all your help the acid worked very well, everything looks great, even the long haired management (my wife) was impressed with the finnish.

[Johnboy54]

I've heard they're not bad at skiing either.

[joelincs]

saffer wrote:

I have just finished re pointing my chimney, most of it looks fine, however there are a few areas were I got a little pointing mix on the bricks. Is there a way of getting this off? I thought of buffing it off with a wire brush but that would clean the old bricks too and I would end up having to do the entire chimney. Someone has mentioned an acid wash? Is there such a thing?

there are chemicals obtainable from builders merchants for this, one is 'disclean' . read instructions and followcarefully as this is a mild acid. never use a wire brush. unless the staining is really bad or in a sheltered position the weather and frost will clean the wall in time.

[weemantam]

I have the same problem but, in my case, I'm using a black mortar dye on a red brick wall. There is a signficiant amount of smearing (mostly because this is my first wall and I'm rubbish at pointing). The wall looks fantastic - though I'm only on course 5 of 12 but I'm properley worried about how much of this smearing is going to remain prevalent once the job is finished.

I noticed someone posted Disclean which is currently retailing about £21 incl delivery. Will it be effective in ridding the dyed mortar smears?

Ta

[WabbitPoo]

Johnboy54 wrote:

I've heard they're not bad at skiing either.

lol