How do you remove paint from brickwork?
Use a masonry-safe paint stripper, applied thick and left to work, then removed with the paint. Never sandblast or wire-brush painted brick: it strips the hard fired outer skin off the brick along with the paint and leaves a soft, porous face that then weathers fast.
Why not to reach for a wire brush
Brick has a dense fired surface protecting a softer body. A poultice or gel stripper made for masonry lifts paint out of the pores without touching that skin — you trowel it on thick, cover it if the product says so, give it the full dwell time, and peel or wash it away with the dissolved paint. It is slow and usually needs more than one application, and that is the trade-off for not damaging the brick.
Abrasive methods — sandblasting, grinding, aggressive wire-brushing — are faster and are the classic mistake. They erode the fired skin, and once that is gone the exposed body soaks up water, spalls in frost, and grows a dark bloom. The damage is permanent.
Two cautions. Test any stripper on a hidden patch first, because masonry strippers can etch or discolour some brick. And if the paint predates 1978, this is lead work: strippers keep the debris wet, which is far better than dust, but the residue is still lead-bearing and must be collected and disposed of accordingly rather than hosed into the garden.
How we sourced this
This answer is composed from our knowledge base, which holds only what a regulator, a standards body or a manufacturer supports. The sources behind it are listed below with the date we accessed each one. If a claim on this page has no source under it, that is a bug — tell us and we will fix it.
Where a figure is product-specific — coverage, dry time, recoat time, temperature limits — we point you at the manufacturer's technical data sheet rather than printing a general number as though it were a specification. That distinction is the most common error in this trade, and it is the one that costs people a repaint.
Common mistakes
- Sandblasting or wire-brushing, which strips the fired skin off the brick permanently.
- Skipping the hidden-spot test, so a stripper etches or discolours the whole wall.
- Hosing lead-bearing stripper residue into the garden instead of collecting it.
- Expecting one application to work — masonry stripping is slow by design.
Related questions
Sources
- Sherwin-Williams. Product technical data sheets (accessed 2026-08-17).
- US Environmental Protection Agency. Renovation, Repair and Painting Program (accessed 2026-08-17).
Also asked as
- How do i remove paint from brickwork?
- How can i remove paint from brickwork?
- How do you remove paint from brick?