7 tips for caring for brick veneer

Most modern brick houses are made of brick veneer, a wall of bricks backed by a wood frame. In other words, they are really brick siding houses. Here are seven tips for preventing problems.

•  Once or twice a year, walk around your house on a clear day and examine the bricks in the exterior walls.
• Make note of any crumbling mortar joints, cracked bricks, mildew and other stains. You don't have to rush to fix the problems, but the sooner you do, the better.

• After a heavy rainfall, check the house's downspout and eavestroughs to make sure no water is collecting on the ground near the outer walls.
• Clear away any clogs and make any needed repairs to gutters and downspouts.
• If standing water is a problem, add soil to regrade the ground near the house so that it slopes away from the building.

• A couple of times each year inspect the weep holes in your brick veneer to make sure they're not blocked. Trapped moisture can rot windows, doors and sheathing, leading to thousands of dollars in repairs.
• Clean them out with a pipe cleaner.

• Before applying a cleaning compound to your bricks — if you need to remove a stain, for example — wet them thoroughly with a garden hose. It will help the compound penetrate better.

• When applying any strong cleaning agent to your bricks, wear protective goggles and gloves and cover nearby plants and grass with plastic.
• Don't use a metal brush; it may scratch the bricks and leave behind metal particles that will rust.
• Don't use muriatic acid; it may stain or bleach bricks or corrode aluminum window frames.
• Before applying a cleaner to century-old bricks or bricks with a light or unusual colour or an unusual finish, test the cleaner in a hidden spot.

• Brick veneer consists of a single thickness, or wythe, of bricks that rests on the house's foundation. Behind the bricks is a wood frame of studs covered with plywood sheathing and a thick layer of building paper or house wrap.
• The bricks are anchored to the wood structure with small metal ties. A 2.5 centimetre (one-inch) space between the inner wall and the bricks lets moisture trickle down inside the wall. Near the bottom of the wall, metal flashing prevents the water from seeping into the foundation, directing it instead out through small drains called "weep" holes.
• Flashing and weep holes are also used above and below windows and doors.

• Although you can paint brick, it's not a good idea. Painting brick changes it from a relatively maintenance-free exterior into one that will need repainting every few years.
• Also, if you or another owner later wants to remove the paint from the brick, the job will be expensive (and the results iffy).
• That said, if you're dead-set on painting your brick siding, power wash it first and use proper masonry primer and paint.
• Apply the paint with an airless paint sprayer, then roll it out with a thick-napped roller.