Swan Valley School cleaning and sealing

The Swan Valley School was in relatively good condition, but the principal wanted to take care of the small issues before they became major problems. That is the phone call I like getting. Years of sprinklers hitting the same brick had left a lot of water staining along the bottom of the building, heavy enough that the lower few feet looked like a different color of brick than the rest.

Up close there was more going on than staining. Moss and lichen had taken hold in the corners where the mortar joints had eroded back, and a few bricks had lost their faces entirely, right down to the hollow cores. None of that improves on its own, and none of it should be sealed over.

So the brick work came first: replace the damaged bricks, repoint the mortar that had washed out, then clean. We tested several cleaning methods on the wall and found one that worked, then worked our way across from right to left. Scaffold and a ladder for the tall gym wall, and a lot of patience.

The difference is hard to argue with. The staining is gone, the brick reads one even color again from the lawn, and the brick is sealed against the sprinklers again. Sealer is not permanent, though - four or five years is about the most you get before it wants doing again, and on a wall taking daily sprinkler spray that is time worth buying.