HOW TO CLEAN CEMENT STAINS ON BRICKS

BRICK VENEER

Cement stains on newly installed bricks is a very unpleasant sight to behold and can be so annoying. It is very much easier to prevent cement stains on the bricks ab initio than coming back to clean the bricks after the mess. You can also use damp sponge with water and carefully clean off the cement without smearing in the joints. This process is usually time saving as you don’t have to go back to your work again to do one or two things to achieve a clean tidy brick veneer. It is also important to spread plastic sheet or plywood at the base of your work area to avoid cement droppings from staining the base of your wall.

If you hired unqualified artisans for your brick veneer job on your building here in Nigeria, believe me, most of the times they end up with stains all over the finished job because they always lack the requisite installation skills of brick veneers. You need a great bricks and stones company like Farad contractors Nigeria for your veneer bricks and stones.

After installing the bricks veneer and you find out that you still have some chunks of cement scrapes on the wall, you have to allow the cement to harden before trying to remove them with a chisel. Before doing this, it is important that you should wet the brick wall with water, this will make the cement easier to remove with chisel and also protect your bricks from getting damaged. Tap the excess cement carefully with the chisel. If the cement shoot is large, try removing it piece by piece, don’t remove it all at once so the brick veneer doesn’t get damaged. After scraping with chisel, brush over the scraped part with a hard wire brush.  To avoid discolouration, do not brush on a particular part of the veneer brick for too long.

Another way of removing cement stains on veneer bricks is with muriatic acid solution, this can be a bit dicey because you have to follow the instructions on the label to avoid accidents. Muriatic acid is a hydrochloric acid that dissolves mortar. It is very toxic acid and important that you fully protect yourself when using it. You will need materials like a chisel, scrapper or an abrasive pad, masonry sealer, eye protection in form of goggles, full covered shoes, acid-resistant gloves, old clothes and sodium bicarbonate which will neutralize the acid should in case it touches any part of your body) and follow these steps.

Dilute the muriatic acid with water, for this you’ll need an acid-resistant bucket. Mix 9:1 solution of water to the acid. The acid must be added to the water and not the other way round to prevent splash back which can be quite harmful to the body.

Dilute the acid with water in the ratio of 9 parts water to 1 part acid, please note that acids are to be added to water and note the other way round and make sure you use acid resistant bucket for the dilution. Then wet the portion of the veneer bricks you need to clean with enough water, this prevents the acid from damaging the bricks when applied.

With an acid resistant brush, apply the muriatic acid to the stained portion and allow it to soak into the stain for 5 mins or little bit more then brush off the stain with water and brush. It is important that you do not allow the acid to dry up on the bricks or it will damage your veneer bricks. After brushing the acid off, check the bricks for signs of damage, if you do not notice any damage, continue the process till you notice appreciable cement stain removal from the bricks.

You can either increase the volume of the diluted acid you apply per wash or allow it to soak longer to improve the removal per wash cycle. after washing rinse off the whole bricks veneer wall with clean water to remove other traces of acid on the wall. You may most likely notice a little bit fade on the portion of the wall from which the stain has been removed, this can be covered with transparent sealants to improve appearance. It is also very important that you engage the services of professional bricks installers like Farad contractors Nigeria to avoid the stress of having to go about cleaning cement stains on the wall, we install bricks with no stains.