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Exterior Home Repair Remodeling

HELP! How do I wash 100 year old brick? what are these red stains?!

4 years ago

Hey guys! I'm looking to refinish the exterior of our home, and our house is 110 years old. The house is yellow brick, but it seems that either the brick or the mortar is stained with some type of red substance? We can't tell if the red is coming from the brick or the mortar. Has anyone seen this before and know how to clean it if possible? Example posted below. Thanks in advance!

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Comments (6)

Bruce in Northern Virginia
4 years ago
It looks like the brick had a sandstone finish on top of a standard red brick, and now the sandstone is wearing off.

You might experiment with digging/cutting into a brick in an out of the way location to see if you find red brick under the light colored finish. If that is the case, I'd just leave it the way it is and enjoy the aging patina.

Bruce
Faith
Original Author
4 years ago
Hey Bruce, we were thinking the same thing , but we drilled into the brick to install new bathroom and stove vents and it was yellow all the way through. So I don't think that's it!
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DavidR
4 years ago
I don't think so either. The red stain seems to be on the mortar, too.

How long have you lived there? Do you know the house's recent history? Any chance it could be paint overspray? Maybe a leftover stain from some slimy jerk's graffiti that was scrubbed off? A careless vampire on the roof? :-)
Faith
Original Author
4 years ago
Hey David, we just got the house back in October of 2018, but it's all over the entire house so I don't think that it's paint! Although I will say, underneath the covered front porch the brick doesn't seem to have any red staining which makes me question if it's due to wear and tear from the weather? Any suggestions on how to clean it?
ci_lantro
4 years ago
last modified: 4 years ago
I suspect that it is a fungus or mold. Esp. since the wall beneath the covered porch is stain free.

I would try something like Wet n' Forget. Won't remove it immediately because it takes a while for the chemicals to kill the organisms. (You can save some $$ by using any quaternary disinfectant ; Wet n Forget is a quaternary disinfectant with clever marketing & a higher price tag.)

*Edited to add that you could use chlorine bleach with immediate results. A quat will take longer to work but will give you residual control that bleach won't give you. Also, no risk of discoloring the brick with the quat. The bleach might give you streaky results??
Faith
Original Author
4 years ago
I think you might be right about the fungus. I'm going to try a quaternary disinfectant, thank you so much!

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