After a particularly wet season, you may have noticed that you have some mold or mildew growing on the shaded areas of your home’s brick exterior and marring its appearance. If so, use the tips below to remove the fungal growth yourself.
Spray the Bricks With a Homemade Fungicide Solution
In order to remove mold or mildew from your home’s brick exterior, you will need to apply some type of fungicide. While you could buy an expensive pre-made solution at a home and garden center, you can opt to make your own that can be just as effective by using either bleach or vinegar.
While bleach has more power, vinegar can help burn any fungal growths at their roots. However, since vinegar is not as strong as bleach, you may have to repeat the application. And, while vinegar is usually less caustic, you will need to cover any plants near your house with plastic to keep from harming them when using either ingredient.
To use either bleach or vinegar, simply fill a garden hose bottle attachment halfway with the liquid. Then, spray the moldy or mildewed areas with the pressure set to its highest setting, and let it sit for a few minutes.
Use a Stiff Broom to Work the Solution into the Brick Exterior
While applying the bleach or vinegar solution to the brick exterior will help kill some of the mold or mildew, you want to ensure that it reaches the fungi’s roots to keep it from coming back. To do this, you need a stiff broom.
While the exterior is still wet, use the broom to work the solution into the bricks while scrubbing in multiple directions. You can do this by using circular motions to scrub the area. Or, if you find this motion too hard on your arms, you can go side to side, then up and down.
Once you have scrubbed the area, allow the solution to work for a couple of hours. Then, with a spray nozzle attachment on its highest setting, rinse away the solution and any dead growth.
While the above tips are useful for cleaning small areas on your home’s brick exterior, you may find that the job becomes nearly impossible to do yourself if you have larger areas to clean. If so, consider contacting Eagle One Softwash to discuss your options for having them professionally clean your home’s brick for you.