soft wash painted brick · Ellerslie, GA

soft wash painted brick in Ellerslie

In Ellerslie, this comes up on rural Harris houses between Hamilton and the county line. Open lots mean sun-baked concrete and rust from well water on the flatwork. Older brick in town often has softer mortar than a new subdivision wall. The method gets gentler, not louder.

Well-water rust does not care what month it is, and neither do leaking door sweeps.

Brick holds moisture, which is why the shaded elevation grows a green film and why painted brick mildews in the pores of the paint. A controlled sodium hypochlorite wash kills that film. Pressure high enough to “clean the mortar lines” is pressure high enough to cut the joints. We do not do that.

Painted brick is paint. If the paint is chalking or peeling, a wash reveals the peel. It does not cause fifty years of failure, and it also will not glue the paint back down. We would rather show you a test area than discover the whole wall is holding on by habit.

Efflorescence, the white salt crust, is not mildew and it is not a bleach problem. It is moisture moving through masonry. Washing the crust off without stopping the water is temporary. We will tell you if that is what you are looking at.

The full explanation, without the town attached, is the brick and mortar are not a driveway article. The town does not change the chemistry. It changes the houses, the shade, and the clay.

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