Bricks turning white.

[charliechaplinspants]

New red bricks on a new wall turning white, builder says it`s lime in mortar re-acting with brick, is this normal?

 

[legs-akimbo]

Effloresence (Spelling?)
In short salt in the bricks leeching out, quite normal not a lot you can do other than soapy water,

 

[legs-akimbo]

Effloresence (Spelling?)
In short salt in the bricks leeching out, quite normal not a lot you can do other than soapy water,

For the walls not yourself, that would not help.

 

[Shytalkz]

 

[JohnD]

the salts come out as the bricks dry; they are carried out by the water rising to the surface

Washing the bricks makes them wetter, so that more water rises to the surface to dry out, carrying yet more dissolved salts.

Just wait for a year or so and it will mostly stop. Time and weather will erode them. You can try using a soft brush on the powdery crystals if you like, it depends how big and hard they are.

 

[mater]

you will see this on a lot of new build houses,not a lot you can do apart from a wire brush, this will go on for a few years. sometimes when lime has been added to the mix and has not been mixed for long enough you will get patches of lime coming out of the bed joints ,this usually occurs with pre mixed mortar.

 

[^woody^]

Or is it lime bloom?

 

[legs-akimbo]

you will see this on a lot of new build houses,not a lot you can do apart from a wire brush, this will go on for a few years. sometimes when lime has been added to the mix and has not been mixed for long enough you will get patches of lime coming out of the bed joints ,this usually occurs with pre mixed mortar.

A wire brush ...theese are BRICK walls not the heat shield surface of a NASA space shuttle.