Painting the exterior of your home is a big decision. It takes time, money, and commitment. It’s an even bigger decision when deciding to paint your brick exterior. Brick has a built-in color and isn’t necessarily intended to be painted when chosen as a building material. All that to be said, a painted brick exterior can look fun and inviting, can help your house stand out, and can show your personality.

Be Sure You Want to Paint Your Brick Exterior

We don’t want to steer you away from adding life to your exterior, but we do want to fill you in on the risks. Before you decide to paint your brick exterior, check on a few things:

1. Quality of your brick – If the bricks of your home’s exterior are older they will look cracked, chipped, or molding. If this is the case, paint will chip off relatively quickly. Due to the paint covering the pores in the surface of the brick, any water that is absorbed will only escape by pushing the paint out.
2. Gaps in your brick layout – Water can enter bricks when you see gaps in seals, holes in the bricks themselves, or incomplete mortar joints. Make sure that these are addressed before painting.
3. Paint of your choice – As we said, painting your brick is a commitment. If you change your mind it can be expensive, need the use of harsh chemicals, and sometimes it just can’t be removed. So make sure your happy with your choice of color before slathering it on.

Prepare for Your Home Exterior Paint Job

Once you’ve decided to move forward (and we’re glad you didn’t shy away!), there are some things you can do to prepare for your beautiful new paint job. You can’t just paint on brand new freshly laid brick. You’ll need to wait, and you’ll need to do some manual prep.

1. Fill any holes – As we noted above, gaps, holes, and incomplete mortar joint will cause issues later on. So before you apply any paint, make sure to fix those!
2. Clean – If you paint on dirty brick, the dirt will chip off leaving blemishes in your overall exterior. Make sure to use plain soap and water, and don’t damage your home by using something too acidic.
3. Start with a conditioner and/or primer – This small step can help the overall look flawless, but will also help in the extension of the paint life. It will help to prevent chipping for quite some time.

Now that You’ve Prepared for Your Brick Exterior Painting Job

Painting brick does require some maintenance. Because of its more porous state, the paint might not stay as long as you would see on a vinyl or wood siding home. So you’ll need to refresh the paint every 3-5 years. Make sure to choose a paint that is also more porous just as the brick, so that the brick can breathe.

Now that the brick is painted, you may want to add darker colors to accent your new painted brick. So think about touching up your door and shutters with a dark color like black, brown, or chocolate. Then on the inside of the house, you might want to think about using a shade of white throughout. A popular white this year is White Dove. Both of these techniques will give your home that extra pop to make it stand out from the crowd and add value for years.

Not sure you’re ready to take on a brick painting project? Well, that’s why we are here. Give Three Brothers Painting a call today, and let see how we can make your house – a home.