Have you noticed that the colors of your brick are starting to fade? Over time, the sunlight and constantly changing weather can lead to wear and tear in the color of your brick walls. The once dark and bright colored bricks will slowly start to look faded and worn out. But is there a way to the brink the dark color of your bricks back? What are the things to do in order to make your bricks look new again?
The good thing is, the color of your bricks can still be restored, and there are various ways or methods to achieve it. Usually, brick staining or painting can achieve restoration, but below are some of the ways you can try to restore your bricks’ colors. With just some effort, determination, and commitment, you can make your bricks look good and new:
1. Deep Clean The Bricks
Before using some paint on your bricks, you should first try to check if deep cleaning them would work and restore the color. You can try to use a vacuum cleaner to get rid of the dirt that has accumulated over time. After vacuuming, you can wash your walls and brush away the remaining dust and dirt with soap and water. You can use a garden hose to wet the bricks or use spray water. For stubborn stains, you can do some of the following mixtures or solutions:
- Scrub the bricks with table salt and dish soap and put them in a sealant to maintain the condition of the bricks.
- Try to use a siloxane sealant to try and restore the bricks.
- For deep step stains, you can use muriatic acid, but make sure to be careful when using acid cleaners, as they can potentially damage the exterior or any other objects. Use safety gloves and goggles, and make sure that you don’t come in contact with the acid.b
2. Paint The Bricks
Another method of restoring the faded color of bricks is through painting them. Before painting, you need to rinse the bricks off first with water. Make sure that the bricks absorb the water. After that, scrub the bricks with a pre-paint cleaner before they entirely dry up. After putting in the pre-paint cleaner, wait for the bricks to dry off completely. After applying the pre-paint cleaner, apply a sealer. And then, make sure to cover the mortar of the bricks with tape, so that the paint will not be leaving any patches on your mortar. Once the preparation is done, you can then each piece of your brick with a sponge brush. You can choose a color you prefer, but there are a lot of brick-colored paints that are available in the market.
3. Stain Your Bricks
Staining your bricks is similar to painting, but this time, you will need to use a coat of concrete stain. To prepare your bricks’ surface, you would need to create a damp surface for the bricks, and you can use water to stain them. Clean your bricks with a cleaning solution, or by using undiluted white vinegar. Once you’ve prepared the surface of the bricks, you can apply a coat of concrete stain. You can adjust it according to the original color of your bricks. You can choose from a wide variety of water-based stains and acid-based ones. If one coat of stain still doesn’t do the trick, you can add another coating.
