Fireplace brick refresh

[ladyhouse]

The bricks at the foot of my fireplace need some refreshing. They look to have a brownish color stain (that is slowly coming off) and many layers of the surrounding wood floor's wax on them. Does anyone know what I should use to remove these substances off the brick and anyway to liven up the brick. I do like the richer brown look.

I have considered taking out the brick and substituting for another nice looking stone but I don't know if these are brick veneer or regular brick that would go down deep into the floor. I would guess the later since the home was built in 1929.

[mrcaptainbob]

I'd rent a small sandblaster contraption from a local rent-all. Mask off the WHOLE area surrounding the brick. Sheet plastic is perfect for this. Go inside your little plastic 'room' with your sand blaster and clean the brick. And mortar. It'll come out looking NEW! vacuum the mess up before removing plastic. Vacuum again after removing plastic. Use gloves, face shield, ear, eye, breathing and skin protection. Sounds like a lot of work, but it's really pretty easy. Much easier than using any liquids and not wanting to mess the surroundings...

[ladyhouse]

You recommend sand blasting even if I'd like to keep the bricks a brownish color? (I don't want both the bricks and the grout the same color though). Basically, I prefer a dark brown with a touch of red to the natural color of brick to go with the taupe walls.

[mrcaptainbob]

Well, it might make available an opportunity to stain it all the color and style you're comfy with. THe unfortunate thing is having the floor varnish on it. Removing that will louse up whatever the coating is under it, too. There was quite a few paint spatters on our brick, not to mention the soot! I took my time and and cleaned it all. Any finishing now, clearcoat or stain would be a lark. Bear in mind this is just my $0.02...