More Brick Work
Oh My! Shane McGarry wants to cover up even more brick than our last reader.
Shane does not say if the brick is inside or outside. If it is outside then a thorough cleaning is needed to remove dirt, contaminants and efflorescence that emerges on aged brick work. Acid wash or sand blasting will get it prepared so the stucco will adhere. Professionals should do the cleaning for you.
However, Shane, if you have $20,000 dollars available I think you could hire a professional to stucco the house, the driveway and two or three of your cars for that amount.
If you bought the stucco spray machine you might be tempted to become a professional stucco application business owner to recoup some of your investment. It scares me to think of someone out there willing and able to take beautiful old brick walls and cover them in stucco. Not that stucco doesn’t have a charm all it’s own. It just seems like gilding the lily.
Please, take some of the $20,000, go on vacation for a couple of weeks and when you get back you will be so happy to see your beautiful brick house that you will hopefully decide to leave it as it is.
However, if you are bound and determined to do this, my last blog has some more information about what to do with brick walls and our friend Oliver has something to say about metal lath over brick that you should read. Check the comments with this blog.
July 7th, 2007 at 8:44 am
Some old brick houses were made of soft brick, which must be kept painted because it was not fired hot enough to become hard enough to effectively resist weathering. The brick makers inteded soft brick to be filler in solid brick walls, with hard brick used on the outside. However cheapskates sometimes built their whole house out of ‘em.