Jetwashing my front brick wall

[Merlin5]

Hi guys. I had this red brick wall built in front of my house about 20 years ago give or take, and it looks terrible now with all the various patches of discolouration and white specks. Will jetwashing clean it up sufficiently to look good again? I'm going to borrow my brother's but I'm not sure how powerful it is. Would it be worthwhile hiring an industrial jetwash from my local tool hire place if my brother's is ineffective? There's a thin crack through the middle of one brick right in the middle area of the wall, you can see it if you enlarge the photo fully. Will that be ok to just fill if I buy a small bag of quick mortar that I add water to? I was then just going to re-paint the white tops and redo some of the pointing.

http://i.imgur.com/IVaVLvm.jpg

 

[HERTS P&D]

Your brothers jet wash will work just fine.

Andy

 

[Merlin5]

Your brothers jet wash will work just fine.

Andy

Thanks, I'll definitely try it first.


Also does anyone have any experience of steam cleaning brick walls? Something has just been mentioned to me elsewhere since posting. I was told,

"get a specialist cleaner in - anyone who uses the "doff" system will be able to clean that right up. It's a steam-based system that we've used extensively - from bricks, to stone, reconstituted stone, metal cladding etc...!

Is it really good?

Another thing I considered is brick acid. I've tried brick acid on walls at the back of my house before and it didn't really clean all the effervescence off very well.

 

[Bosswhite]

Depends on how much money you want to spend,

I would have thought borrowing your brothers jet cleaner would be the cheaper alternative

 

[Merlin5]

Yep, I'll just do the pressure washer and some brick acid.
What is the best order to do this? Clean it up then fix pointing, or fix broken pointing and then do the clean up?

 

[foxhole]

Jet wash first, will remove any loose material before pointing.

 

[EightyTwo]

Take it easy if they're soft red bricks. The jet washer could cut huge grooves in them...

 

[Merlin5]

Thanks for the advice guys.

Right, I've been told that they look like 'Flettons' and not soft reds and should stand up to jetwashing.

Tools I'll need for removing mortar joints then. Club hammer and chisel? I'm going to pretty much remove all the pointing on the other side of the wall that's not in the picture because it was done badly, with lots of excess mortar not smoothed out.

 

[foxhole]

Angle grinder.
http://www.screwfix.com/p/mortar-ra...DPtW2scg78JyJ5xGM1thmvd2vrr6K9JzNp!-514216503

 

[Mursal]

Tools I'll need for removing mortar joints then. Club hammer and chisel? .

Be careful with the hammer and chisel especially on a brick wall

 

[Merlin5]

Hi chaps. Well, it only took me 4 months to get around to it! but I did it today. First time I've used a jetwasher, I'm really impressed. Worked better than I thought. The wall isn't perfect but a lot better than it was.

Compared to the pic of the wall in the OP, here it is now.

First section done

and here's the whole wall done, drying out.

Neighbour saw me doing it and kindly gave me a tub of Wickes weatherproof masonry paint so I'll paint the tops tomorrow. I was thinking of cleaning the wall further with some brick acid I have. Should I do that? It looks like there's effervescent white patches. Not sure if that's from jetwashing today and maybe I should leave it to dry out for a few days before putting acid on?

(Ignore the spotted thing in the window, just a temporary cover till my new venetians arrive).