I have no Xpert knowledg in this area. But there are bound to be people and contractors somewhere that do.

Another option might be looking for specialty painting store that cater to painting contractors and pick their brains for paint removers they might recommend.

My basic theory about brick is that it's BRICK! I'd be inclined to scrape it, sand it and dope it as need to get rid of the paint. If you sand off some of the surface, all you are going to do is expose more brick.

That might not work so well on the mortar. If you dug out enough mortar or discolored it, you might have to re-point it with new mortar.

If worse came to worse--- you could always repaint it!

I'm no expert either, but still want to mention a few things. Brick is very porous -- maybe some types are less porous than others. That means that the paint you want to remove has probably soaked in pretty deeply. You might try to chip away at the paint in an inconspicuous spot to get a better idea of what you're up against. I don't think you can remove the paint without creating a really BIG mess inside your house. If a contractor says they can do it without a big mess, I would question him/her closely to find out exactly what they mean.

Thanks for the tips! I really appreciate the feedback.

Do you think this is a 'do it yourself-er' type of job? Or, one to hire out?

I am inclined to think it's one I can do myself - although tedious and time consuming.

I also worry about paint stripper discoloring the brick itself, in addition to not removing all the paint due to the porous nature of brick.

What's the best way to protect your wood floors while stripping a fireplace? Plastic sheets and painters paper taped to the base of the fireplace?

I've tried a number of different methods to strip paint from brick and the only thing I've found that really works is sandblasting. Scraping/sanding doesn't work because the brick is so porous that the paint really sinks in. Chemical strippers don't work well because of all the pits in the brick's surface where the paint gets stuck, and even on the smooth surface you can still see the tint of the paint - it's like when you clean a paint brush and the color just keeps coming out from it. Sandblasting does a great job. It's not a DIY project since if you dont know what you are doing you can end up with an uneven surface. A good sandblasting outfit can protect the surrounding area so that when they are done everything is clean. You can try a few methods but I think you will quickly come to the conclusion that they don't work very well.

Unless you are very confident that you will be pleased with the appearance of the brick when it's been stripped of paint, you might consider a less disruptive alternative: laying something on the brick such as tiles (ceramic, porcelain or quarry), marble, granite. The list is endless.

I had this exact thing done to my fireplace about 10 years ago. It had a few layers of paint on it and I wanted it to be that natural brick color. I had a company sandblast it and it made an insane mess and when it was done it needed to be tuckpointed. It was a very porous brick and there was still some white paint in some low points, I had to touch them up with paint. All said and done it looks nice, but resurfacing would have looked nice as well and would have made alot less mess and been alot less work. Of course I was very young and had nothing but time.

Gook luck with you choice.