Calcium Deposits On Brick

brainswell

Would like to know if any of you PWashers have ever encountered Efflorescence on brick? I can best describe it as something that looks like calcium/salt deposits that have leached out of brick or the mortar? If you have ever encoutered this, did you have success removing it? If yes, please let me know your method.

We have encountered this on a few schools in the Orlando area and have not had success to my satisfaction removing this stuff. We've tried the following:

• CLR - did not work
• Diluted Muriatic Acid - maybe 25% effective
• 100% Muriatic Acid - 50% effectiveness at best, really nasty to work with.

In conjuction with the above we used stiff wire brushes with the acid solution and then hit the areas with either a 4000 or 4500 psi machines with a turbo nozzles. Even with this, I cannot completely remoze this stuff.

I will try and post some pictures I took with my phone.

Thanks,
Brian

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Celtic

I have some of that on my porch that was rebuilt last year.

Here is some brief info (more at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Efflorescence )

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carolinaprowash

We've found all the help/product we'd ever need at www.eacochem.com. The products are top notch, the knowledge and customer service are second to none!

Celeste

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lukachuki

search over in the masonry part of this forum. There has been some good advice given over the years.

I was in my local tile and stone shop yesterday and they had a specially formulated efflorescence remover that they said worked quite well. It was not muratic. This is their website you could call and get the manufacturer.

www.tilecenter.com I was in the Augusta store.

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"The problem with internet quotes is, you never know if they are authentic." -Abraham Lincoln-

Less with the jaw more with the paw!

tom connelly

Hate to say it, but you probably just made everything worse. especially using muriatic straight. yeah its nasty. but not just for you. it will burn your brick, eat the cream out of the mortar joints (which can cause them to crack and pop out with time), and if used incorrectly, (which straight is incorrectly) you can make the stain even worse by creating white scum, or what they call clean up efflorescence, or acid burn, along with a lot of other problems.
eaco chem
is definately a great choice, and they can get you on the right track. they are our favorite chemical company, and they can answer all your questions.
hope you get it resolved.