Painting exterior brick is a good way to give your house a new look without a lot of expense. While many people love the look of a brick home, sometime the dark brick can start to seem tired and old to a homeowner who wants something lighter and fresher. Obviously, the expensive of replacing the brick can be prohibitive, so painting exterior brick is another option.

Painting exterior brick is little different than painting wood. If the brick is new and you’ve decided to paint it already, it needs to weather for a year first to cure. Otherwise, ore inside the brick will start to seep through and stain your paint. If it’s over a year old, then pressure wash the brick thoroughly. Wait at least 5 or 6 days before you paint. And if the weather has been damp during that time, wait for several days of dry weather.

Since brick is a porous masonry material, it might feel dry when there’s still some moisture trapped inside, so don’t feel it 2 days after pressure washing, decide it’s dry and start to paint. Your painting job will start to bubble and peel in no time.

Purchase a primer designed for brick. Once that’s thoroughly dry, apply two coats of your main paint color, allowing plenty of drying time between them. Acrylic latex paint is the best choice for painting exterior brick. Don’t skimp on your paint, but instead get the best quality for better and longer-lasting results.

Choosing white or a light color will give your home a fresh new look after the darkness of the brick. But even choosing a similar color like a dark red can give the home a new uniform look and may look better with trim colors you like or accent colors that are already present.

Before painting exterior brick you should be aware of the some of the disadvantages. Once you paint brick, it’s hard to go back to the natural brick color. It’s easier to strip paint from wood to go back to natural wood. But the brick has pores and so many little nooks and crannies that you can’t just “strip” brick. The only way to remove paint from brick with any kind of efficiency is to sandblast it.

Even then, there are going to be tiny spots where the paint may still show. If you have someone come in to sandblast the brick for you, you’ll get better paint removal, but even then it might not all come off. They might even forewarn you that the remaining specks of color might not wear of for up to 10 years.

If you just want to change color, you’re far better off simply adding another few coats of the new color than sandblasting the old off first. Because of all the pores and the texture on the brick, often the paint will peel earlier than it might with wood. If you paint exterior brick, plan on repainting it every 5 to 7 years or so, or more depending on your weather.

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