Proper preparation and cleaning of a brick wall are crucial for successful paint application. Why is it essential to use a primer? What tools should you use – a brush, a roller, or both?
A brick wall is always a striking design element. It’s a staple in every well-decorated café and a perfect partner for industrial design. When in its natural reddish brick color with white mortar lines, it looks especially attractive. However, painting it in a lighter shade can be equally effective. White or beige paint gives the brick wall a completely different character, opens up the space, and better complements displayed pictures and photographs.
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Painting a brick wall is more complex than painting a regular plastered wall and requires adherence to some basic rules. Following the procedure is particularly important because subsequent repairs, such as fixing poor paint adhesion, are much more challenging on a brick wall than on a plastered wall.
How to Prepare a Brick Wall for Painting
As with any type of painting, good preparation is more than half the job. First, the wall needs to be thoroughly cleaned. If the wall is well-preserved, vacuuming with a standard kitchen vacuum cleaner, using a dust brush attachment, should suffice. After that, you can wipe the wall with a damp cloth to remove the finest dirt.
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For exterior walls, which are much more rustic, more effort is required. If there are remnants of mortar on the wall, they need to be removed. This can be done carefully with a small hammer and chisel. After removing larger pieces of mortar, the wall can be cleaned with a wire brush. This will remove smaller pieces of stuck mortar without damaging the brick.
Brushing with a wire brush can be done manually or mechanically by attaching a circular wire brush to an electric drill. Finally, the wall should be prepared as described for well-preserved walls.
For outdoor walls, instead of using a vacuum and damp cloth, a pressure washer can be an extremely effective tool for final cleaning. If there are cracks in the wall, you can fill them with acrylic caulk applied with a caulk gun.
Primer is Essential for Quality Adhesion
Once the wall is prepared, a primer needs to be applied. This is particularly important for an uneven and unstable surface like brick to ensure the final paint adheres well. Before applying the primer, make sure the wall is completely dry.
The type of primer used primarily depends on the paint you plan to use, which in turn depends on whether it’s an interior or exterior wall and the desired shade. In any case, choose the primer according to the paint that will be applied.
Before applying primer and paint, protect other surfaces if necessary. Tape the edges that won’t be painted with masking tape, and to minimize cleaning after the job, protect the floor from paint drips. The secret of professionals lies in good preparation and precise work.
This is why their work always looks better. If you don’t use masking tape, the wall will be painted, but the edges will be uneven, and the paint may spill over onto other surfaces (ceiling, pillars, adjacent walls), resulting in a sloppy job.
Combining Painting Techniques Saves Time
After applying the primer, you must wait for the wall to dry thoroughly, which depends on ventilation, temperature, humidity, and other factors. The best way to apply paint to a textured brick wall is with a brush, and this also applies to the primer. If the wall is large, you can combine two techniques: rough application with a roller followed by brushing areas where the roller couldn’t reach while the paint is still fresh.
Each coat of paint needs to dry thoroughly before applying the next to prevent peeling. The number of coats required depends on the quality of the paint and the color you are painting over. You’ll need to determine when the desired uniform result is achieved. On a rough, rustic brick wall, this might be easier than on a perfectly plastered wall.
And remember, if the wall looks patchy and the paint hasn’t fully covered the red brick after the second coat, it might just need more time to dry. By the next day, the wall will likely be uniformly white once the paint has completely dried.
Foto: Freepik