Cream city brick - paint or clean?

My home's foundation is made of cream city brick and naturally it looks a bit dingy. Sandblasting is out of question. So what are my other options to make it look nicer? Is there a product that could be used to clean them without doing them any harm? Or what about painting them? Would paint adhere well? Or would that just end up making a mess that I'll have to repaint every year?





CCB is ';made from a red clay containing elevated amounts of lime and sulfur.'; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cream_City_鈥?/a>Cream city brick - paint or clean?
I think that you might be sucessful with a ';Brick Acid'; which I have used and a lot of Builders here in the UK use. It is hard work because you will need to use a hand scrubbing brush. Here generally, it is used to remove mortar stains from new brickwork. You may be able to purchase this at your local builders merchants, or find a similar alternative. Brick acid is good and does no damage to the brick. DO NOT PAINTCream city brick - paint or clean?
wow ....what a lovely house..... it has all the attractiveness of field stone, which I love





As for your home, since it is only the foundation of your house that is made of ths kind of brick, it certainly would not be terrible to paint: I am sure you could under-base coat the bricks with somethng to seal off the porosity, a necessary step since you do not want the brick to drink up the paint





If you really would rather opt for cleaning the brick (which is what I would do, if I could), why not try to contact the people at the Trimborn Estate....I clicked on that name in the body of the text of the article and saw that it was privately owned, but part of an historic trust....so they might be happy to share informaion





best of luck with your project


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Try www.heytom.net they have great tips, you just type in your question and they will answer you on their site and also by e-mail.
power wash the bricks.