How to Paint an Exterior Brick Veneer
While brick is a timeless exterior cladding, many of the colors and styles installed decades ago are not. The cost to replace them are high, so the best option for most home owners is to paint them. Painting bricks requires a little more effort than typical walls made of wood or drywall, but can be done by the average person, saving up to thousands of dollars by not hiring a professional painter.
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Instructions
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Clean the exterior brick veneer. Cover any flowers or shrubs with a tarp or plastic to prevent harm. Use a sprayer filled with outdoor bleach and water, applying it to one side of your house and let it set for a few minutes. Re-spray any areas that need it. The bleach will kill any mold or mildew growing on the outside of your house.
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Rinse the outdoor bleach off with a pressure washer, taking care to not get the nozzle too close to the brick veneer. The pressure wash just needs to remove any loose debris, not make more.
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3
Use a paint brush and cut in the brick veneer where it meets door and window casing and the soffit. Cover the edge of the casing and soffit with blue painter's tape to help prevent accidentally painting those areas.
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Use a paint roller to paint the walls with a quality primer designed especially for bricks. If your brick veneer hasn't been painted before, it will soak up the primer, so be prepared and buy some extra primer. Depending on the depth of the mortar between the bricks, a paint brush may be needed to fully cover the mortar joints.
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Apply two top coats of finish paint to the brick veneer, but unlike interior painting, do not sand in between coats or after the finish coat. For tight budgets, getting the primer tinted to the finish coat may allow only one top coat to be applied, although two will stand up to the elements better.
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Tips & Warnings
A one inch nap is best, but 3/4 inch will work.
Paint fumes can be dangerous, even outside. Wear a respirator even outdoors.
