Cleaning paint off brick & mortar?

[Swervin_Mervin]

Anyone know of any products that will do a decent job of getting paint off brickwork?

Previous owners built a crappy porch and we want to take it down. The only trouble is they painted the entire inside white, which means that some of the facing brickwork of the house itself has been painted.

I tried a test patch on the porch side, using standard retail Nitromors and it did naff all other than make a small patch a bit lighter. Conscious that retail products are often inferior to trade and so wondered if there's anything out there that would do the job, without ruining the face of the brick?

[shtu]

Depending on the texture of the brick,

http://www.screwfix.com/p/bosch-gws-7-115-4-profes...
and
http://www.screwfix.com/p/titan-twist-bevel-100mm-...

[megaphone]

I've just done exactly the same, removed an old porch, and have the same issue, gloss paint on the brick work. I also tried Nitromors and had no luck, I've used a wire wheel on a drill, yes it gets the paint off but also marks the face bricks, so I'm looking for ideas as well.

[Swervin_Mervin]

Found this at lunchtime:

http://www.stripperspaintremovers.com/basic_princi...

Think I might give them a try, especially as they do trial pots.

The house was re-skinned when it was extended and so it's all relatively new brick which is smooth faced. As such it needs to be a "light" treatment.

[wseed]

I had the same issue with my previous house. I had it sandblasted and it came up a treat. The guy was a little embarrassed about his quote but explained the setup work he had to do and travel would be the same as if he'd done a much bigger job but I was happy to pay a days rate to get the job done properly.

[FlipFlopGriff]

We've got modern paint on a 300 year old wall and I've used a heat gun and a scraper. Hard work but wouldnt be bad for a smaller area. Then a proper small chisel to tap the bits off trying to not danage the brick.
Then repainted in breathable paint (which it should have been to start with).
FFG

[Drogo]

Maybe try Graffiti removal stuff like this....

http://www.screwfix.com/p/de-solv-it-graffiti-remo...

[Swervin_Mervin]

I've got some toxic and corrosive chemicals that have turned up today. Solvistrip and another product.

Will give it a whirl at the weekend, but the solvistrip seems to get good reviews.

[TwigtheWonderkid]

By some paint in a shade as near as possible to the brickwork and paint over it.

[Pheo]

Tried a pressure washer?

[Drogo]

"Toxic and corrosive" that's the way to go.

[Swervin_Mervin]

Drogo said:

"Toxic and corrosive" that's the way to go.

It cheered me up when I saw those nasty orange symbols on the product and a safety sheet listing the contents of each

[Swervin_Mervin]

Not bad as it was only on an hour. Underlying brick face nicely unaffected. The Nitromors effort is in the bottom right and that was on sever hours.

[AlRaven]

Swervin_Mervin said:

I've got some toxic and corrosive chemicals that have turned up today. Solvistrip and another product.

Will give it a whirl at the weekend, but the solvistrip seems to get good reviews.

I've got an even worse problem in that the previous owners painted the bottom rear half of the house in about 3 coats (oil and water based) masonry paint, I've been useing the Solvistrip which seems good stuff along with a normal pressure washer, but because the bricks are a heavily textured rustic type it's heavy going - about 3 applications so far.

Strippers info mentions using a hot pressure washer - anyone used one of these??

[Swervin_Mervin]

Eesh, wouldn't fancy that! Thankfully the previous owners reskinned the house so it's nice smooth brick.

I did wonder about the hot water pressure washer as even just using a scrubbing brush on that one brick was more difficult than I envisaged.