cleaning black stain on bricks

[jon9315]

hi
i have a circular window in my loft, which has some black material on it, not sure what it is - maybe soot?

it hasn't come off with a lot of scrubbing - have also tried spirit of salts, but no luck.

any ideas what i can use to remove it/ who could do such a task?
many thanks

 

[pilsbury]

When I opened up my fireplace to bung in a log burner the bricks were sooted up badly. Tried a host of cleaning products with little effect, only removing surface dirt.

In the end I used some sandpaper. Worked a treat. Came up almost new. A word of caution, not as applicable to you or me..... sanding removes the harder surface of the brick so outside would probably not be the best idea. But as with me, yours is internal. I still whacked several coats of Matt stone sealer over the bricks once done. Made no difference to the look and probably helped seal them a bit.

 

[jon9315]

thanks for the reply!