Brick Cleaning Services

Exterior paint removal

Our team are experts at steam cleaning brick. Using our DOFF steam cleaning machines, we can safely clean paint off bricks without damaging the brickwork underneath the paintwork. Pressure washers will struggle to remove paint as effectively and are likely to cause damage to the brickwork during the process. Our DOFF system uses superheated steam at low pressure, making it more suitable for heritage properties and delicate brickwork.

Graffiti removal

If you’re struggling to remove graffiti from brick, our experts can use specialist brick cleaning techniques and solutions to remove any trace without causing damage to the brick.

Waterproofing brick

After we’ve completed our cutting-edge brick cleaning methods, we can apply a transparent coating that seals your bricks to make them water-repellent. This can be a great way to preserve bricks after they have been cleaned.

Brick restoration and repointing

If your brickwork has suffered from water damage, Spectrum can restore the brickwork. The first step is to roughly clean the bricks and expose masonry surfaces, followed by pointing out the masonry between the bricks. The team will then mix the correct amount of cement and mix in colouring if required.

Needle gun restoration

Some internal brickwork is finished with a needle gun to give a worn and older-looking texture, which can bring beautiful characteristics to the brickwork. This process requires care and experience to ensure the bricks aren’t damaged or too much of the brickwork isn’t taken away.

The needle gun restoration process can also be used to breathe new life into the bricks, especially if they are tired of having had water damage.

Brick maintenance

Brick stains and damage can leave your building looking tired and result in an unexpected brick restoration invoice. However, if you keep on top of your property's brick maintenance, you’ll alleviate these issues.

At Spectrum, our highly experienced brick cleaning experts use state-of-the-art methods to not only restore bricks but to preserve their quality too. Not only do we leave your bricks looking as good as new, but they are also future-proofed.

Brick cleaning methods are required regularly throughout a building’s lifespan. It should also take place whenever any renovation or extension is being added to help the building blend in. After construction works, bricks can often get scuffed or marked with cement and may need a cleaning process to help the new areas settle in.

Brick cleaning methods are also required on older buildings where efflorescence, dirt, grime, algae, or paintwork have caused the surface to look old and tired. This is especially true of buildings in large cities, like London, where pollution and vandalism can be an issue. Damp weather can also encourage algae and moss to grow, causing brickwork to look unsightly.

When cleaning bricks, we advise cleaning at the earliest opportunity. If you’ve just completed a construction or renovation project, you should aim to clean the brick as soon as possible to avoid cement and masonry solidifying and becoming too hard.

You can use a cleaner and dilution solution to clean the brick. As with removing paint from brick, you should avoid using a pressure washer or sandblaster as this can cause further damage.

You must identify the type of brick before cleaning the brickwork, as some types take on the appearance of another material. For example, some bricks look like clay bricks but are made from concrete. So, if you use the wrong cleaning method, you could cause sustained damage to the concrete brick.

Your local DIY store will have the necessary cleaning solution available, but make sure you check it is the correct product before applying and cleaning your brick. If you’re not 100% sure or need to clean a large and difficult to reach area, we recommend calling a brick cleaning and restoration expert like us.

Removing paint from brickwork can be a painstaking process, especially if you have a large section of the wall to complete. It may be tempting to sandblast or pressure wash the brickwork, but this may only cause further damage in the long term.

The good news is that paint-stripping products have come on leaps and bounds in the 21st century, making this an easier task than it was a few years ago.

Getting paint off brick requires patience, but when done properly the results are more than satisfying.

There are cheap products available on the market. However, to get the best quality results, you should use brick cleaning professionals.

The beauty of using a brick cleaning company is that they can provide the safest and best methods to save you time and money. There’s also the danger that you could accidentally do damage to the brickwork.

Brick, render, concrete and stone can all be absorbent surfaces which makes paint removal tricky. To remove paint from masonry, a paint stripper can often be effective without damaging the masonry. This solution is an effective way to clean up your masonry and will not break the bank either.

However, we recommend contacting a professional to remove paint from the masonry, as the best results are often achieved by using steam cleaning.

Efflorescence is crystalline salt deposits that form on porous building surfaces. It often occurs when water mixes with salt. Brick efflorescence is extremely common in masonry, historic restoration projects and even everyday modern buildings.

On some surfaces, you may be able to remove efflorescence with a stiff brush. In other instances, it will require an acidic cleaning solution to get the tougher stains out of the brickwork.

For optimum brick efflorescence removal results, we recommend contacting a specialist to remove the stains for you. Removing efflorescence from brick is not an easy task and must be done carefully to avoid further damage to brickwork.