Stripping paint from brick building

This guy called me and wants his brick building stripped and brought back to its regular brick look… but I cant decide if I wanna take the job or not. Does anyone here have any advice or Preferences for removing the paint? Do I NEED heat or will some stripper and high pressure work? Never stripped paint off of brick before.

If he wanted it prepped for paint…then go for it.

Brought back to normal brick? Lol. I wouldn’t waste my time

Well he just dont want paint on it anymore, that’s all. Sorry the way I worded it kind of sounded stupid lol.

@Patriotspwashing it looks like the only way to do it is by media blasting or hot water… hmmm… might have to walk away fast.

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I can’t imagine that you will ever meet his expectations. Brick is porus so even with the best chemicals(and a lot of it) you’re still going to have some spots of paint in the brick. Take my words with grain of salt bc I’ve never done this before, but I have tried to remove small sections of paint from brick and it’s never met my expectations. I wouldn’t take this job. Good luck with whatever you decide. If you do take it please update us though out the process.

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Thanks man and I agree. I dont think it’s a good opportunity. I’m gonna pass on it for sure.

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There is a chemical strip where you apply the chem then a sheet over it. Its not cheap but saves alot in clean up. Cant remember the name. But a media blast would scare me to death. We have alot of cement dead mortar and a lot of st. Louis used and Chicago used here, there is alot of salmon brick (very very very soft) you can break them by hand and erode the faces with your finger. Will almost certainly need pointing afterwards.

I saw that ! Its actually pretty neat. But they only come in like 2 meter square sections. Lol. That would cost a fortune to do a whole building. Lol

In the words of the infamous IBS - Walk, no, make that Run Away.

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Dry ice blaster.

Seems like if you could find the right chemical, all you’d need to do is roll or spray it on, and then cover it with a large sheet of poly.

But I’m with everyone else. Run away!

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If you’re interested in the job then do a test section on the most difficult area. I’d test somewhere high of there is any high spots. That’ll give you an idea of if its even possible and what it’s going to take. Personally this time of year id turn something like that down. What ive been doing with difficult or extraordinarily high priced jobs is offer a discount for scheduling Jan-Feb… Those are myvslow months. This is my first year doing this and Im already almost meeting my regular monthly quota for those two months.