Talk about dirty

[Ben H]

[Marc]

Isn't pressure washing damaging to brick? Maybe dirty brick is better than brick that behaves like split face block.

Marc

[mgbinspect]

Sand-blasting is damaging to brick. A pressure washer shouldn't be too bad. It's how brick is cleaned up, after installation.

What a change - pretty amazing. What - are these buildings along a railroad track or something?

[Bill Kibbel]

What a change - pretty amazing. What - are these buildings along a railroad track or something?

It's from burning coal - bituminous coal - for industry and heating. I think the official state mineral of KY is coal.

[Bain]

I hate to have to tell you, but the photo has been 'Shopped. The brick on my house is the same color as that on the building in the photo. I've tried to clean the stuff a time or two, but it's wicked porous and 90 years of soaking up exhaust fumes, pollution and bug breath have permanently discolored it.

There's no way that black gunk could be so effectively removed with a pressure washer unless--maybe--it was gushing hard enough to rip out the mortar and windows.

[mgbinspect]

I hate to have to tell you, but the photo has been 'Shopped. The brick on my house is the same color as that on the building in the photo. I've tried to clean the stuff a time or two, but it's wicked porous and 90 years of soaking up exhaust fumes, pollution and bug breath have permanently discolored it.

There's no way that black gunk could be so effectively removed with a pressure washer unless--maybe--it was gushing hard enough to rip out the mortar and windows.

Hm... The cleaned brickwork does look awfully pristine. Interesting...

[Jim Baird]

What a change - pretty amazing. What - are these buildings along a railroad track or something?

It's from burning coal - bituminous coal - for industry and heating. I think the official state mineral of KY is coal.

Oh. I thought coal was the state vegetable.

[Bain]

What a change - pretty amazing. What - are these buildings along a railroad track or something?

It's from burning coal - bituminous coal - for industry and heating. I think the official state mineral of KY is coal.

Oh. I thought coal was the state vegetable.

Q: Why doesn't Florida fall into the ocean?

A: Because Georgia sucks. Bada bing . . .

[hausdok]

Hi,

I don't think they're sand blasting or pressure washing. They're probably steam cleaning it. That would easily get the brick that clean without causing serious damage to it.

ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!!

Mike

[Les]

I wonder where the "water" is going?

How are they dealing with open tenant windows?

Why would the worker be cleaning downward?

etc.

I have owned pressure washers that will cut brick into pieces - intentionally.

[kurt]

Around here, the "water" goes everywhere, open windows get water in the units, and they keep it pointed downward to reduce the amount of mortar blown out of the joints.

Most of the washing here uses a light acid or other cleaner. It's reasonably effective if the guy doesn't blow the mortar out of the joints.

Effective and fast, but not particularly good for the building; lotta water gets blown into the wall.