How to Restore Brick Walls
- 1). Rinse the brick surface with a hose equipped with a nozzle sprayer. This basic rinse will remove surface dirt and dust, clearing the way for the rest of your cleaning.
- 2). Mix one cup trisodium phosphate cleaner and one cup bleach into one gallon of water in a bucket. Don rubber gloves and soak a scrub brush into the solution.
- 3). Scrub the brick surface with the cleaning solution to remove stains and mold. Work in small areas, rinsing often to prevent the cleaning mixture from drying on the surface. Continue until you have cleaned the whole wall.
- 4). Inspect the wall surface for a white powdery stains that were not removed by your cleaning. This is called efflorescence and is a result of water seeping through the brick. Clean these stains with a specialized masonry cleaner or with a diluted solution of muriatic acid. Rinse the wall well when finished to remove all residual cleaner.
- 5). Locate any cracks in the mortar. Scrape away any loosened mortar with a wire brush. Don protective goggles and dust mask. Remove ¾-to-one inch of cracking or loose mortar with a hammer and thin chisel until you find a stable mortar base below.
- 6). Scrape out the old mortar with a wire brush and then remove all dust with a whisk broom or a bottle of compressed air. Repeat this for every crack in the mortar so that you can fill them in, increasing the stability of the wall and preventing future efflorescence problems.
- 7). Mix mortar and water into a wheelbarrow or bucket, following specific manufacturer's instructions for dilution ratio. When you are finished mixing, the mortar should stick to a trowel and be the consistency of peanut butter. Allow the mortar to set for 10 minutes and then mix again.
- 8). Dampen the mortar joints with a light water spray to prepare them for new mortar. Fill a brick trowel with mortar and hold the trowel just under the cleaned out joint, tightly against the brick.
- 9). Push mortar into the joint with a pointing trowel. Work in thin sections, pushing only ¼ inch at a time into the joint until it is packed tightly full. Repeat for all cleaned out joints in the wall. Let the mortar dry partially, until you no longer leave an indent with your thumb, before continuing.
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Shape the joints with a joint shaping tool to match the other joints. The shape of this tool will vary by the joints of your wall; find these shaping tools at hardware and home improvement stores. - 11
Sweep any dried mortar from the brick faces with a bristle brush. Mist the mortar in the morning and evening with a spray bottle filled with water for the next two days to allow it to cure slowly for stronger joints.