Had a new driveway poured last year and the contractor splashed cement on the red brick on my home. Couldn't get him back to clean up. Tried power wash and wire brush still can't clean brick Any ideas? Frank
I've only done this for excess mortar on brick, but I would think it would be about the same for cement. There was loads of it, some overflowing the intended mortar and other stuck to the middle of the brick for no apparent reason. I got really good at it. One strike per piece.
I was going to say hammer and cold chisel and a delicate hand. But I guess that is what I used for cement that overflowed the molds when the sidewalks were put in. As I think about it, what I actually used on the brick was a single edged razor blade in a holder, and maybe no hammer at all.** They make the nice razor holders, with rounced corners and rounded edges, but the blades break very quickly in them when used on an uneven surface like brick, I guess because they are held along the whole width when used.
So I used a box cutter. There are two models of box cutter (the thin flat silver thing, folded over, with a slide in the middle layer that holds a single edge razor, a la 1940, at one end) "Model 1" has some sort of useless decorative indentation at the other end, but "Model 2" is like a 1" wide pair of tweezers (you can tell this model because when viewed from the side, there is hole the hole with of the cutter, shaped like the space between your thumb and first finger when the fingers are as straight as possible), and the same razor blade will slide into that, to be a window scraper. Because the ends of the blade can flex, I guess, I could go 15 minutes to a half hour without breaking a blade. They don't have to be sharp. And they work with some of the edge broken off too, but I changed the blade after half of the edge was gone. And when the pieces came off, the brick underneath looked perfect, after 10 or 15 years since construction. And was the same color as the part that got sun, although this was tan brick on the north side of the house. And not as rough as some red brick, but like I say, when it came off it came off totally. I got better as time went on.
** (I don't remember why my palm didn't get blisters or start to hurt, but maybe a rubber mallet or hammer if that happens to you. Maybe from the start I used a short piece of 2x4, Or a short piece of fence rail. But it didn't take much force.)
Sharp brick chisel at a shallow angle, and maybe one of those slotting rubbing stones concrete finishers use to knock down burrs on patio edges and along tooled expansion slot joints. (Does anyone still use those? All I see lately is sawn post-cure slots.) Another tool to add to collection is a mason's hammer- square head, non-slotted claw on back. If Borg doesn't have them, a real yard that sells to the trade will, or a large masonry products dealer, but they will charge premium prices.
I cleaned tens of thousands of brick as a kid with these tools.
aem sends....
There are several techniques including acid and abrasive (sand blasting) or physical (hammer and chisel) What will work depends on the brick and there are a great many different kinds of bricks and even their age makes a difference. In some cases, it just is not going to happen. Sorry
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