How to Maintain Brickwork

Nothing looks nicer than bricks on the outside of a house. A minimum of maintenance can keep them looking great. However, if you ignore your brickwork, it will crumble, and you'll be faced with expensive repairs. Following are steps for maintaining brickwork at your home.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

1. Check mortar joints for cracks or missing pieces. Replace mortar when needed. However, don't fill in the weep holes, vertical spaces between bricks near the foundation that let moisture escape.

2. Ensure that plant beds don't cover bricks.

3. Clean out gutters and drain pipes so water runs off the roof properly instead of falling down onto the bricks.

4. Rinse bricks with a garden hose and jet sprayer. If you rinse the bricks on a regular basis, you may never need to scrub your bricks.

5. Scrub dirty or discolored bricks with a stiff brush and a mixture of ammonia and water. Use a pressure washer only if nothing else works, and only with extreme caution.

6. Remove mold or moss from bricks by scrubbing with a stiff brush and a mixture of bleach and water.

Tips & Warnings

• If you have old brickwork with lime mortar, don't rush to replace the mortar. Modern mortar mixtures aren't as good.
• Never seal your brickwork.

[jocpa]

on 9/20/2008 why not seal brickwork? I have a brick walk that looks much better when sealer is applied.