Painted brick has become extremely popular in the past few years. It's a fairly inexpensive way to transform your home's exterior. You can take outdated brick and give it a modern update. There are several paint systems that you can use, depending on what's most important to you. Before you paint, you'll need to properly prepare your home for painting: power-wash and repair. You also need to use a primer that adheres extremely well to masonry surfaces and that withstands pH up to 13. If you want a textured look (that looks more like stucco), you'll want to use a texture coating system. PPG has a masonry coatings line called PermaCrete®. PermaCrete® 100% Acrylic Texture Coatings are specifically designed for interior and exterior, above grade, masonry, concrete, wood and metal surfaces requiring high performance textured finishes. This is a new home build that used PermaCrete® over their brick to get the look they wanted on their exterior:
PERMA-CRETE® Interior/Exterior Acrylic Masonry Surface Sealer: 4-809 PERMA-CRETE® 100% Acrylic Texture Coatings: 4-60 (Medium Hard Texture), 4-70 (Coarse Texture) This historical home in Lynchburg, VA is using PermaCrete's High Build Acrylic Topcoat 4-22:
Additional Acrylic Primers you can use on brick (masonry):
Ultra Spec Masonry Int/Ext Acrylic High Build Masonry Primer (609): designed to penetrate and seal the surface of new or previously painted masonry surfaces providing the proper foundation for subsequent finish coats. It can be applied to masonry with pH levels as high as 13.
Rhino-Grip 8000 Interior/Exterior Universal Primer/Sealer: an all purpose primer especially formulated to block most stains - water, smoke, ink, markers, and tannin. It has exceptional adhesion to glossy surfaces. Recommended as a whole house primer for use on properly prepared interior or exterior wood, masonry, plaster, wallboard, cement, brick, stucco, cement composition board, and wall coverings. Also can be applied to masonry with pH levels as high as 13. For a traditional exterior coating on brick, you can use your favorite exterior paint (after primer). Below is a home painted with Benjamin Moore's MoorGard Low Lustre Finish (103). MoorGlo is being used on the trim.
The 2018 St. Jude Dream Home in Owasso, Oklahoma used PPG Timeless Exterior paint on their home's exterior brick:
A third option for exterior brick is RomaBio paints. We stock them in select markets, but can special order for certain jobs. They are mineral based and made with high quality, natural ingredients that are toxin-free. They are easy to use, affordable, and extremely low maintenance. ROMABIO® Classico Limewash is an authentic slaked-lime paint specially formulated to create unique wash off effects for the Interior or Exterior. Whitewashed brick has a charming Old World feel with a freshly painted look. You can update your home while still keeping the warmth of the brick exposed, and not having to fully commit to completely painted brick. The best part is, it’s removable! There’s no stress when deciding the color or look that you want. The paint is designed to be washed off in the first 5-days following application so you can test it as you want. It can easily be touched up because of its flat finish. ROMABIO® Masonry Flat (BioDomus I) and ROMABIO® Masonry Textured (BioDomus II) give you a painted look for your brick, stone, stucco, and other masonry. Benefits include: highly durable, long-lasting paint that won’t peel or flake off, has high-UV resistance, is naturally mold-resistant, and has a beautiful finish. Looking for more ideas and examples? The folks at A Beautiful Mess posted about their exterior brick transformation here. The Young House Love bloggers posted their love of RomaBio here.
Find a Spectrum location near you to learn more about products to use to paint your brick! Or to get their recommendations for local paint contractors.
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