Removing Dead Virginia Creeper Remains

olgadapolga

Hello everyone :wave:

First foray onto this board so please be gentle with me!

I completed on a house purchase today and the house has fresh growth of Virginia Creeper as well as the dead remains of the plant that has been previously removed.

Getting rid of the live stuff if not a problem as I'm going to dig it all up and remove it from the walls.

The front of the house is covered in the remains of dead plant and I struggled to remove it without it breaking into smaller pieces.

The only advice I could find for its removal was to burn it off, using a small (cooking) blow torch and then brush away the ashes.

What do other people think? Is there a better (and more environmentally friendly) way of removing the dead stuff?

Many thanks for your help.

tori.k

would a Mutt scrapper do the job, Ive shifted ivy that i cut and let die back its a messy job to sweep up but got the job done quickly.

unrecordings

From experience - to remove from brick (not render) - cut the creeper at a conveniently low height then carefully peel off the wall, using ladders if need be. A paint scraper can be used to shift stubborn bits and clean up the wall after. I think you'd regret trying the blowtorch approach

Davesnave

I've only ever done ivy. Where small bits too difficult to get hold of were left, I used a scrubbing and a wire brush, but that didn't get it all and there were still tell-tale traces. These did seem to weather eventually and further brushing helped. That was on relatively smooth, reconstituted Bath stone, where I had to go gently.

I think eventual success depends on what the wall surface is and the aspect too.