how to paint bricks?

Question

The bricks on my fireplace were painted when I bought my house. Is there anything I can do to either remove the paint to expose the original brick or is there something I can paint over it that will make it look decent?

Answer 1

i did this in my house and it looked wonderful, but took a long time. i sand blasted the brick clean then i bought this cleaner that had muratic acid in it. be very careful with this stuff ,it can make you have a real bad day. and i used it to get what i couldn't get w/sand blasting. then i bought some tile grout that was a color that matched my carpet and used that to fill in the spaces where the mortar was blasted away.(some places were worse than others)it looked great everyone commented on it when they saw it for the first time
good luck

Answer 2

Since paint penetrates the surface of the brick, I doubt that you will have much luck removing the paint. However, you might try someone who does sandblasting. Buy a couple of bricks, paint them with something close to the fireplace, let the paint cure a week to ten days, have them sandblasted and see what happens. If this doesn't work very well, then paint over what's there with a paint that suites you.

A warning: sandblasting inside your home may prove to be more dusty than you are willing to put up with.

Answer 3

I'm going to keep watching for your nanswers because I have the painted brick problem, too..Sandblasting is the only thing I've come up with so far and it doesn't sound practical.
I'm hoping we get a better solution. I've resisted trying ordinary paint remover for fear it'll only make a bloody mess..

Good question. ( Incidentally, mine - a fireplace - was painted before I acquired the house and it is WHITE freakin' paint!).

Answer 4

Since you can't powerwash inside i would suggest painting over. Pick a pretty thick (good quality) paint and add sand to it. Scrape the old paint with a wire brush to remove any loose flakes. The sand helps bond the paint to the brick so get it as clean as you can. Please be sure it is not lead paint that is on there now.

Answer 5

It is difficult to remove paint from brick you could have a preofessional do it or paint over with an oil based paint and a good paint brush.

Answer 6

I used a little sand blaster with a shop vac at the same time to pick up most of the mess and sand right when it came off the brick... you can also paint them again... wire brush the loose paint off and prime and paint...

Answer 7

to remove existing paint use paint thiner then use mettalic sponge to take off paint

to repaint prime it and app;y paint

Answer 8

challenging subject. try searching from yahoo. that will can help!