too much acid on brick

[blackjack21]

I recently cleaned a house that had two small brick areas in the front of the house w effloressence. I diluted muriatic acid 10 to 1 and applied to a test spot. I rinsed after a minute and five minutes later when it dried the test bricks had a grey appearance. Can I fix this? Would the effloressence have been treated with a weaker solution? how can I tell if bricks have been sealed?

I've already found a lot of useful info in the search section here and on the Aldon chems website. Any additional info from you brick guys would be greatly appreciated....as always.

Blackjack

[blackjack21]

Anyone??

[PressurePros]

Did you wet the brick first? You should always wet a masonry substrate before applying acid. You are on the right track at Aldon. Also look at Eaco Chem.

[blackjack21]

Originally Posted by PressurePros

Did you wet the brick first? You should always wet a masonry substrate before applying acid. You are on the right track at Aldon. Also look at Eaco Chem.

I wet the brick when I cleaned it first, but then I let it dry before I applied the chems thinking the wet brick would weaken the effect of the chems. I wiil wet it from now on I bet; thanks.

[dk34]

The gray color is likely a burning or bleaching of the brick surface. Efflorescence cleaners are buffered to prevent this.

As far as knowing if they were sealed, a Rilem tube test might be overkill http://www.prginc.com/Masonry/rilem.html, a splash test is likely sufficient. As far as fixing it, EacoChem has a product called burn restore that may do the trick http://www.eacochem.com/specs_burnrestore.shtml - test a small area first. You may want to call them, as they are great with supporting heir products, usually putting one of thgeir chemists on the line with you.

[Jim Carroll]

Prosoco's Sureklean 800. what happens in this case is that the acid disclored the pigments in the masonry and that is what you see on the brick. the 800 will take that color off and leave it like it was before. One contractor that I work for Cleaned part of a building because I could not get to that particular section in time and they did the same thing. Most accidents with masonry can be fixed except for blowing out joints and cutting lines in brick. Which some of that can be masked or hidden sometimes.

[blackjack21]

thank you thank you thank you and thank you

[dk34]

My hesitation with using SureKleen 800 is that it IS an acid. Ph of 1.7, and states "Will not correct damage caused by improper use of hydrofluoric acid cleaning solutions." Muriatic acid is not hydrofloric, but hydrochloric, however, you may want to try both burn restore & 800. I don't think the primary use of SureKleen 800 is to repair burn/etch/bleaching marks.