HELP PLEASE! "GRAFFITI" REMOVAL FROM BRICKWORK

Section62

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82051990#Comment_82051990

Hopefully it won't come to anything legal, but you won't do yourself any favours communicating with the landlord claiming this is "accidental".

"Accidental" would be if you happened to be standing next to the pilar holding a can of spray paint which suddenly exploded, covering the pilar in paint. Claiming that you had two cans of paint which happened to explode at the same time and by coincidence created a two-tone number, which by further coincidence is the number of the house, would be expecting a lot of anyone you want to believe that was true.

Please don't think this is intended to be criticism of you, as it isn't. But given the nature of the landlord it would be unwise to start arguing that this is anything other than "wilful" (aka intentionally done by yourself) "damage" (aka unwanted alteration or breakage)

danrv

A heatgun might help with some gentle scrubbing. Try the Zep stuff first though.

WIAWSNB

How are you getting on, P0123? Have you decided on a type of paint stripper?

I'd be astonished if there isn't one that'll do the job and leave the brick unaffected. When you get one to try, put a blob on a red brick on the other side or the side that faces the fence, very near to the ground where it won't be noticed. Try some on the mortar too. Leave it for the max time the instructions say, and then wash it off - check for stain or erosion.

If ok, ditto on the paint, but small areas, with shorter application time, to begin with.

casper_gutman

One thought that occurs to me is that it will likely be possible to remove the paint from the mortar more easily than from the bricks. You can use abrasive methods there as there's no surface layer you risk removing, and the worst you can do is leave the pillar in need of a bit of repointing, a very small job on that little pillar. Even if you find it's difficult to remove every last bit of paint from the faces of the bricks then I suspect cleaning the mortar joints really well could help a lot with the overall look of the thing.

Easy for me to say, but if it were my brickwork I'd try a combination of things: cleaning the whole area with a chemical paint remover recommended for use on masonry (working it into the texture, using the clingfilm trick and repeating the process a few times), mechanical cleaning of the mortar joints, and if needed localised painting of the bricks themselves using a brick-coloured paint. Rather than painting the whole face of the brick, which will give an unnaturally flat result, dot the paint onto just the hard-to-remove ingrained flecks of paint that remain after cleaning.

Hopefully this would give a result that would pass unnoticed on cursory inspection, although it might not pass inspection by a landlord looking carefully to find fault.

Section62

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82055658#Comment_82055658

One thought that occurs to me is that it will likely be possible to remove the paint from the mortar more easily than from the bricks. You can use abrasive methods there as there's no surface layer you risk removing, and the worst you can do is leave the pillar in need of a bit of repointing, a very small job on that little pillar. Even if you find it's difficult to remove every last bit of paint from the faces of the bricks then I suspect cleaning the mortar joints really well could help a lot with the overall look of the thing.

The joints/pointing on masonry walls actually contribute a lot to the overall appearance of the wall. The colour, texture and shape of the mortar and pointing, and the joint thickness, can significantly change the look. There is a surface layer to the mortar - particularly whether it is 'polished' or rough.

Repointing the pillar isn't a big job in terms of total joint length, but getting a match involves having the right colour sand, the right mix proportions, and then using the right technique to apply and finish the pointing.

Usually patch repointing is very easy to spot (and is a good tell when someone has tried to repair movement cracking) simply because it is so difficult to get a good match, especially where the wall is weathered. In this case I'd say that someone has already partially repointed the pillar.

Personally I'd experiment cleaning the bricks first - although the type is generally difficult to clean, the natural tonal and colour variations (even within one brick) mean that a small patch may not be that noticeable.

casper_gutman

Reasonable points, @Section62 . I agree the pointing makes a big difference to the look, which is why I thought cleaning them well might make a big difference to how the pillar looks, even if cleaning the faces of the bricks themselves proves difficult. If it ends up needing repointing then doing the whole face of the pillar rather than patches still wouldn't be a particularly big job and could be DIY-able….

Section62

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82055764#Comment_82055764

If it ends up needing repointing then doing the whole face of the pillar rather than patches still wouldn't be a particularly big job and could be DIY-able….

As a general comment (not disparaging the OP's skills) DIY repointing usually looks terrible and stands out like a sore thumb. I've done a fair amount of bricklaying myself, pointing is something I'd leave to a professional, especially if it needs matching to existing work.

Going back to the affordability issue - repointing the wall is likely to cost considerably more than a professional graffiti removal job, even for a relatively small area of pointing.