Blast cleaning/re-pointing brickwork

IM

Morning all,

We live in a (largish) traditional red-brick semi, on a busy road. The brickwork shows the signs of years of car fumes etc. and in the past someone thought it was a good idea to apply red paint to the lower part of the walls (paint which is now tired and peeling).

I want to have the whole of the house cleaned (shot-blasted, chemicals, whatever) and the brickwork re-pointed.

I've found a few local companies to call, but I'm scared this could prove to be a really expensive undertaking.

Before I get someone round, and have to do that nod-calmly-and-look-as-though-you-expected-that-figure-but-inside-you're-thinking-"what the @#%..?!?" thing, can anyone offer a ball-park figure?

Blue_Lou

Have you tried pressure washing?

http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?rb=28078929482&action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X2dhbGxlcnk=&product_uid=124792

You could do it yourself by connecting up to a house and cleaning the bricks.. I did the side the side of my garage and it looks much cleaner, it even took the moss off.

Some people would not like to use a pressure washer on their house thinking it may take out the mortar from the bricks but if done properly it is relatively straightforward.

I don't know how much pointing would be however, sorry.

IM

Hmmm...

The challenge there is getting up to the top of the house - and in any case I can't see a pressure washer taking paint off.

In terms of the risk of taking out the mortar... That's why I wanted to do it at the same time as the pointing. The latter needs doing anyway, so I thought two birds/one stone.

(These were a couple of the sites I'd found...)

http://www.blastitblasting.com/residential.htm

http://www.kmpointing.co.uk