Painting a brick exterior can bring new life to the appearance of your home. You can quickly transform to a clean, contemporary color that will give the outside of your home a modern look and added curb appeal. But isn’t an insignificant upgrade to your brick exterior, so is it a good idea? Natural brick is a popular look for many homes, but you cannot change its appearance without painting it.
So we talk to contractors and realtors to find out why you should and shouldn’t paint brick and what effect it can have on the value of your home. As you might expect there are pros and cons for painting the brick exterior of a home. If your brick exterior is currently paint free then you seriously need to think about why you may want to paint your brick.
If your exterior has already been painted, then you have two options - maintain and repaint, or remove the old paint to get back to brick. Here we get expert opinion on the options available. Natural brick is considered a selling point in most cases and should be left alone.
'You don’t need more than one reason not to paint bricks – they look better without it,' exclaims Brandon Walker, Construction manager at . 'Painting brick is something you can never turn back from either. Once the paint is inside the porous cavities of the brick exterior, it will always have a patina of the painted color until the face of the brick has eroded - so be sure you like the paint color!' But it's not just the aesthetic that should influence you.