WELL YES – YES YOU DO!
How to paint brickwork – that’s what we’re talking about! You may have seen the recent stories on our Instagram account of John, myself and ALL of the children painting. As over 700 hundred of you wanted to know more about how to paint brickwork, I thought I had better find out if I was doing it right!
Our first step was to ring our friends and mates at Haymes Paint (@haymespaint) to double check we were doing it right! Thankfully we have been, but this was the guidance they gave us!
PS. They are there to answer your question and were really nice in explaining all of the different solutions to us!
PREPARATION, PREPARATION, PREPARATION!
The key to great paint work is in the boring, but necessary preparation. This means you need to ensure your bricks are clean and ready for paint.
Our bricks were freshly laid so this means we needed to acid wash and clean them. Remember, when you paint brickwork, make sure you wash all the acid off before you paint. If you don’t need to clean mortar off the brickwork, a pressure wash might suffice. But make sure the water jet isn’t so high that you blow out the mortar.
THE RIGHT TOOLS
You will need the RIGHT paint, the right rollers & brushes and paint mixer! We used the Haymes Paint Ultra Premium Solashield Exterior – low sheen paint.
Investing in good paint is worth it! It will get dirty, you will need to clean it – you can tell the difference!)
Now mix that paint! The tint separates out over time, so mix every time you use it.
CUT IN THE EDGES, THEN let’s PAINT those bricks!
Cut in the edges. This means that when you roll up to the edges you will get full coverage. You need to cut into the ground, ceiling, any internal angles and where you change paints or colours. External edges do not need to be cut in.
I love to cut in, and my partner loves to roll, it is really a match made in heaven!
Use a long nap roller to roll your brickwork (you want lambswool ideally, but you can use synthetic) and roll in one direction (up and down). The “nap” refers to the thickness of the material on the roller and therefore how much paint the roller will hold.
If you have brickwork with a deep rake (this mean deep crevices) you will want to roll it on on a 45 degree angle and lay it of vertically. This will help get all the way into the mortar in between the bricks.
TWO COATS SHOULD DO IT
Two coats to cover when you paint brickwork should do it! How good your paint is will make a difference at this point! Some paints will have great coverage and others will need more coats as they look patchy. So whilst it may be more cost effective to buy, it’ll cost more because you will use more, and it will not last in the external elements for the same amount of time.
We will have a few more painting projects to come in the future, and cannot wait to show you what a change just a lick of paint can make.
PS… Please tag @buildhercollective in your painting projects and show us what you are doing! My list of painting projects is rather long, is this yours too?
xx
Rebeka
