a few general exterior brick questions

[nuts]

I am going to paint my in-laws house for them, and had a few questions:

It has approx. 1200 sf of unpainted, extremely porous brick to cover...about 200 of that had ivy growing on it, which was pulled down about a year ago, leaving nothing but the dried up roots.

1. What is the best way to clean the ivy roots off?

2. I will be pressure washing the house. When doing this, can you blast the brick, the facia, gutters, soffits, and everything all at once?

3. What are the steps, in order, taken when painting an unpainted brick house?

4. With this porous brick, it almost seems like a roller wouldn't be able to really get in there. But a sprayer is not feasible for me (never used one)...what's the best thing to do? Use a roller with a thick nap and just plan on using 50% more paint??

Thanks for your help!!

[rmichael]

Hi Nuts,

Power wash the entire house at the same time. The power washer should remove some of the dead roots. You may need to use a paint scraper or wire brush on the more stubborn areas.
Use a high end acrylic latex finish paint. Thin the paint to spec, or a bit beyond, and apply a prep coat to the brick. The thinned paint will soak into the surface and provide for a more uniform finish coat. Thin the finish coat to spec, and not beyond.

Apply using a  3/4 - 1 1/2 inch nap cover (depending on the depth of the mortar joints) and keep the brush handy to pull out runs and work the joints.
If you don't want the roller texture to show.. roll the paint on in workable sections and brush out the texture as you go.

Hope this Helps
rmichael     pro painter

[theopas7]

hi nuts,
 without distracting from rmicheal's recommendation i just
wanted to share with you that when you're 20 minutes or
so from the 'ivy affected area' presoak that a couple of times
so that when you do pressure wash that area you are assured
of complete root removal.