Get matched with top masons in Gardendale, TX

The premise for painting a brick building is fairly simple: Prime the bricks to seal the surface and apply the top coat to protect your brick home. However, it’s easy to miss a few important steps if you’re starting from a raw brick surface and don’t know the basics of how to paint brick. So be sure to reach out to a local professional painter if you have any reservations about correctly painting your brick house.

Solid brick structures can last a century or more, potentially 100 to 150 years with proper maintenance like tuckpointing. Without major repairs, classic red bricks may last 20 to 40 years. Brick veneer siding is also a long-lasting material, with a lifespan ranging from 50 to 100 years, provided it is properly installed and maintained. To maintain brick veneer, you should scrub it annually with a special detergent and a soft-bristled broom. It's also important to inspect the bricks and mortar regularly and hire a masonry contractor for any necessary repairs, such as fixing worn mortar or bowing bricks.

Masonry uses units like bricks, cement blocks, and stone with mortar between them. Mortar is generally made of sand and a type of cement. Examples of masonry include the brick or stone on a house, chimney, or freestanding wall. Concrete is a mixture of water, sand, stone aggregate, and other materials, and is poured into forms or moldings. Types of concrete applications include driveways, garage and basement floors, and poured concrete walls in basements and crawl spaces.

Some older brick material is extremely hard, making it tough to create a hole. Rather than using a typical wood drill bit, always use a masonry drill bit when drilling into brick. For extremely hard brick, using a power drill with a hammer function may give you better results. The drill bit will heat up as it goes into the extremely hard brick, so you may need to stop after a few minutes and allow the bit to cool before starting to drill again.