Pros And Cons Of Painting Brick Exterior In San Diego, CA
When you’re considering painting your home, there are many factors that come into play, one of them being the material with which the exterior of your home is made.
When your home happens to have a brick exterior, you have to really look at it differently because painting brick is not like painting other exterior surfaces.
With that in mind, here are some of the pros and cons of painting brick exterior in San Diego, CA.
Pro: Increases Curb Appeal
When you paint your brick exterior, you can be sure that the curb appeal of the home overall will increase.
Curb appeal refers to the perceived value of your home as can be seen from somebody that is doing a drive by — they are by the curb.
When people are looking at buying a home, one of the first things they might do is to actually visit the home in person and assess what they think of it just from a distance and by painting your brick exterior, you will make it look like it should be purchased for more money.
Con: Painting Brick Exterior Is Permanent
Once you paint a brick exterior, you really can’t go back because the painted brick is something that cannot be undone without considerable damage to the brick itself.
Even if you somehow manage to remove all of the paint from the brick, what will be left for you is a brick exterior that looks nowhere near as good as it did before you started the painting process.
As that is the case, you will need to make sure that you really want a painted brick exterior because a bit like getting a tattoo, this is something that is basically permanent
Pro : Painted Brick Exterior Is Easier To Clean
A quality that brick has is that it’s quite porous, which means that airborne dirt and things that tend to make home exteriors dirty in general have a tendency to really stick to the brick exterior.
Cleaning an unpainted brick exterior is difficult because of that porous nature and the way that the dirt really gets into the pores, a bit like how a person might get grease and oil into the pores on their face.
When you have a painted exterior, on the other hand, you get a nonporous surface, and that is the kind of surface that is much easier to clean.
Con: You Need To Clean Painted Brick Surfaces More Often
Though it’s easier to clean painted brick surfaces, you can more readily see any kind of dirt or grime that might appear on the surface and therefore it is important that you clean it more often.
On the plus side, since you will have an easier time cleaning it, this should not be too much of a problem.
Pro: Tougher Against Weather
Going back to the porous nature of the brick, you will see that when it is faced against harsh elements like rain and snow, plain brick just doesn’t do nearly as well as painted brick.
Painted brick will serve as a sort of umbrella against these harsh elements, and protect your home from getting these nasty things in the walls of your home.
Con: Painted Brick Might Hide Rot
If there is any sort of crack in the paint that would let in water, the brick underneath might not be able to release that water (unless you use a paint specially that allows it) and over time the brick underneath might decay and rot.
This would get progressively worse over time and might not be found until the wall itself starts to crumble, which is quite a costly thing to repair as you might imagine.