Repainting the brickwork

[Jason]

I'm repainting the brickwork on the front of the house. This includes lintels, bay window (stone bay with brickwork, also painted).

Now, I've peeled off all the lose and flaking paint, and that just leaves the good paint that is firmly stuck to the stone and brick. However, painting over that will show the edges of the old paintwork.

So what do I do?

• Should I sand the edges of the old masonry paint that is still intact, so it it not such a sharp edge?

• Is there some kind of filler I can use to smooth off the edges of the paintwork?

• Do I actually need to strip it all off, good pain and bad, so I'm starting with bare brick and stone?

Obviously I want the easiest path ;-) Any recommendations?

-- Jason

[NT]

Painted brickwork is so ugly. I'd be tempted to paint it with something with a little bulk, such as basic lime paint, itll smooth over the edges as well as anything will, with no tedious sanding work. Its also easy to chemically remove one day when the other paint has finally all come off, then you can have clean bare brick again.

NT

[Martin Bonner]

??? What do you mean by "basic lime paint"? If you mean "limewash" that is the one finish that

say they can't sell you the means to remove - once it has carbonated, it's limestone. (Actually, I suspect sodium silicate based paints might be similarly difficult to remove.)

Also, limewash has much /less/ bulk than (eg) Snowcem (although it looks almost infinitely less ugly).

[Jason]

The brickwork is used to fill in the three panels below the windows of the stone bay, so we are not talking about vast stretches of brick wall. Some of the bricks were spawled under the paint, and I have pulled them out and replaced them. The rest of the front of the house (apart of lintels and window sills) is bare brick though, and that is how I intend to keep it.

-- Jason

[Jason]

"Repainting the stonework (plus a small area of bricks)" would probably have been a better title.

-- Jason

[Jason]

Just to follow up on this, I tried sanding the edges of the good paintwork, and it turned out to be a hard job. The paint (Wickes masonry, about 16 years old) turned out to be incredibly hard and simply would not sand down.

So I went for a fine paste of Polyfilla Exterier, and that worked a treat. It went straight on, spread smooth, hid the edges of the old paint with no effort, and has painted over without any sign of what is underneath. It tool half an hour to do that, rather than what could have turned out to be a full day (or more) of sanding.

-- Jason

[Dave Liquorice]

I was impressed by the Dulux Weathershield I punt on last year whe attacking it with a wire brush to clean up the odd spot that has failed (poor substrate mainly). Even going at it hard made almost no impression on it.

I wonder how long it will last before the feathered filler flakes off? I guess the masonary paint will protect it but I bet that will be the bit that fails first.