Painting Brick

Q. The original owners of our home had about three-fourths of this house made with white brick. The brick has some of the original red showing through and we think it was to give the house an older look and feel. The home is about twenty years old and the brick looks dingy. I want to power wash the brick and paint the siding and replace the shutters. One realtor thinks we shoud paint the brick because the gray motar will still make the brick look dingy.

I question whether painting the brick is a good idea. Potential buyers may wonder why and may just see painted brick as a huge maintenance item.
Would you advise painting the brick or just give it a good power washing?

Thanks so much for you show and info.

A. Once the brick is painted it is difficult to remove all the paint. The paint absorbs into the brick mortar and does not easily come off. Painting brick is much more common because brick colors often date the house and may need color updating. The vision and value of the whole appearance of the house, painted or not, is the best answer. Once the brick has been painted - I suggest that you remain open to painting the brick. If it had never been painted I would advise you try not to paint the brick.

I suggest power washing the brick first, see how clean the brick and mortar gets, and then decide whether to paint or not. I also suggest that you schedule painting the brick into your preliminary plans. I think power washing the brick will be only partially successful.

Go Back