Painted Brick in Houston (El Paso, Lubbock: cul-de-sac, 2014, new house)

[gwarnecke]

I've never been a huge fan of painted brick. I've always viewed it as:
-A way for sellers to dress up a house + cover up structural issues and mismatched brick repairs
-A copycat trend that is surely just about to run its course (although this hasn't happened yet...it remains stubbornly popular both for renovations and high-end new construction)

However, my wife is completely enamored with the white-painted brick look and thinks it's just the ticket to modernize our 1986 custom. Ours would be the first painted brick on the cul-de-sac, if we went ahead with it, although there are plenty homes in the general area of a similar vintage and style that have been painted recently. I begrudgingly admit that most of them turned out pretty well, aesthetically speaking.

My concern at this point is more about longevity and maintenance. Any experiences with painted brick in the Houston climate? Does it contribute to moisture issues? About how often would repainting be needed? We know a few owners of painted-brick homes, but all of them painted within the last 3-4 years, so they don't have much experience to share regarding longevity.

[Raider Scott]

White painted brick CAN be a magnet for green mold growth. Especially if you have lots of large trees and little direct sun hits the bricks.


Tread lightly....

[Global_Run]

Painting brick white seems to be a big trend of late. In our neighborhood, the houses were all built between 1986 - 1992 so there is a lot of light red brick, brown brick, and basically just a mix of brick colors no one would pick today. At least five houses have painted their brick white in the past year in our section. The main disadvantage is there is no going back once you decide.

I'm personally not a fan of the look but the ones that look better tend to have some dark accents to offset the white such as dark window frames, fascia board, gutters, and roof color.

I've always wondered how expensive it would be to tear out and replace brick for an entire home. Obviously must be cost prohibitive since I've never seen anyone do it.

[elnina]

Painting brick is a bad idea. It doesn't "breath" anymore. It traps moisture. It's humid in Houston.
Google it.
Usually looks bad too...

https://www.masonryofdenver.com/2014...t-paint-brick/

[a_guerrajr]

Some of the homes in the neighborhood I"m building, are painting brand new houses due to shortages in brick.
I was curious of essentially sealing the brick, unless they are adding some time of method for it to breathe.

[gwarnecke]

Would using a brick/stucco paint alleviate the moisture trapping issue? Something like this:

https://www.lowes.com/pd/Valspar-Mas...E&gclsrc=aw.ds

Our house faces southwest, with a large shade tree in front. Lots of brick on all four sides of the house. I've seen some mild mildew accumulation near the N corner of the house, which can easily be pressure-washed off. I'm guessing that this area may be problematic for mildew accumulation, if we painted.

[Raider Scott]

Originally Posted by gwarnecke

Would using a brick/stucco paint alleviate the moisture trapping issue? Something like this:

https://www.lowes.com/pd/Valspar-Mas...E&gclsrc=aw.ds

Our house faces southwest, with a large shade tree in front. Lots of brick on all four sides of the house. I've seen some mild mildew accumulation near the N corner of the house, which can easily be pressure-washed off. I'm guessing that this area may be problematic for mildew accumulation, if we painted.

Yes! You will totally accelerate the mold if you paint that brick!


This is not El Paso or Lubbock...where you might get away with painting that brick. In Humid Houston...I would advise against it.

[travelguy_73]

We painted the brick of our 1960s mid-century a few years ago, using Romabio "masonry flat" (http://www.romabio.com), which is relatively new on the scene in our area. I did a lot of research and wanted to give the exterior a new life, while avoiding the pitfalls associated with latex. It isn't latex, and I highly recommend Romabio over the standard masonry paint.

Two other thoughts: We went bright white, and while I like how sharp it is, on most houses, I think it will look too stark. I would recommend a warmer neutral tone (the Romabio website and FB page have lots of real-life examples).

Also think about using a limewash instead. It isn't for every style house, but it's natural and ages well, giving the house an instead vintage look. Limewashing is as old as time.

[gwarnecke]

Thanks - I'm considering lime wash, I think it would be a great fit for our house (late 80s sort-of-colonial, sort-of-French). For what it's worth, though, there are a lot of white-painted homes in our area, but I haven't seen any lime-wash ones.

Another complication is that, in addition to brick siding, we have brick flooring on the porches and brick accents on our driveway, so I'd have to figure out what to do with that. And we have a beige-colored knockdown texture on the pool deck, which looks fine against the current brick but would likely clash with limewash or white paint.

Maybe I'm better off talking my wife into a different project, haha.

[Raider Scott]

Lime wash is a great option.


This is widely used in other hot and humid places in the Deep South like MS and it should hold up well.