How To Know If You Should Paint Your Brick Exterior in Baton Rouge, LA

When you have a home with a brick exterior, there is one chief difference between your home and the homes that have other kinds of exteriors like wood, vinyl paneling, and the like — it relates to painting.

Specifically, it relates to how very permanent the process can be — as once the paint is applied to the brick it is just about impossible to remove without causing damage to the brick itself — meaning the brick will never look as good as it originally did.

With that being the case, let’s look at and consider how to know if you should paint your brick exterior in Baton Rouge, LA.

Are You Committed To Having Painted Brick?

As mentioned above, when you paint brick you’re not going to be able to go back and remove the paint, as it were, without causing substantial damage to the bricks.

This is because paint cannot just be removed from brick the way that it can be removed from other surfaces — as brick is a much more porous surface, it takes in the paint and locks it in as it were.

Therefore, you need to recognize that once you decide that you’re going to paint brick, it will remain painted.

Will You Clean More Often?

When you have an unpainted brick exterior, it is going to be somewhat more difficult to clean than other surfaces — this is because it has a porous surface, as mentioned above, and so the dirt tends to get into the crevices more.

That being said, it’s somewhat more difficult to tell when your unpainted brick surface is dirty — it’s not that it blends in with the brick, but it might just be that it’s harder to distinguish dirtier brick from cleaner brick.

Once you paint your brick exterior, it will be considerably easier to clean — the painted brick surface is not going to be porous and so you will have an easier time cleaning it.

However, a downside to the painted brick is that it’s a lot more obvious when there is dirt on the surface of it — since your painted brick exterior comes in several lighter colors possibly, you will see the dirt more easily.

That being the case, since you will find it easier to clean the house, it shouldn’t be a problem cleaning more often.

Can You Commit To The Effort Needed??

When you are looking to paint the exterior of your home, of course, there is going to be a good amount of effort that you’re going to need to invest.

This is possibly more the case with brick exteriors, which can require a bit more preparation work, as well as the time that you will need to put into finding the right paint and equipment for painting.

If you get the wrong sort of paint, several things could go wrong depending on what kind of paint you get for your exterior brick painting.

If you get the kind of paint that is meant for interior painting, for example, then you’ve gone entirely in the incorrect direction, paint-wise — interior paint is lacking in many of the qualities that exterior paint has.

Even if you do have exterior paint, you may not be using the right sort of paint — there are exterior paints that allow moisture to get out, so if somehow water gets under the paint it will then get out.

The kinds of exterior paint that do not allow moisture to escape can get your brick exterior damaged over time if water gets in.

Bottom Line: Painted Brick Exterior Is Good — But A Commitment

As stated above, you may enjoy a painted exterior — and that’s perfectly fine.

The thing is, however, that you will need to stick to it once you choose to go that way.

Have a question about a Painting Project?  Give Prestigious Painting a call at (225) 614-9520, and I’ll be your guide in transforming your home.  We will help you with your painting projects in Baton Rouge, Prairieville,  and Gonzales, Louisiana. You can also look below and schedule your estimate today!