We’ve recently had experience with trying to clean graffiti off of brick in the indoor common area of our building and I’m going to share a little bit about what worked for us. I’m going to honest with you – it’s a pain! You will need the following:
Goof Off (we got from Home Depot) – you will want to spot test to make sure no discoloration
Scrub brush (wire brush would be nice but we didn’t have one)
White rag
Gloves
Fan to air out the place (those fumes will make you dumb)
60 grit sandpaper
Sanding block
Big muscles and your own grit (aside from the sandpaper’s)
You will want to open windows to air out the place or you may lose a lot of brain cells. Also, wear gloves! You will have to spray those bricks ALOT – like douse them with the Goof Off. And you will have to sand like you mean it. I had my husband do the sanding b/c he had to put his back into it. :-p
Protect the flooring underneath or it may get messed up like ours did (the carpet got stained red) – luckily, we were planning to replace it anyway so we weren’t trying to be too careful.
You will want to cut the sandpaper out and place it into the sanding block. You have to lift up the end of the sanding block to get the sandpaper in there and then once you let it go, the prongs pierce the sandpaper and keep it in place. Do this for each side of the sanding block.
Then, spray the bricks – scrub as much away as you can with the brush and the rag – if that gets it off great. If not, then try the sanding. You may have to sand each brick for quite some time. You’ll have to be persistent here, but you should see results after a little bit.
Disclaimer: If stuff gets screwed up, it’s not my fault. I’m no expert – just a normal person trying to clean up some bricks..
This is the after picture. I didn’t take a before picture – sorry. The brick is still wet in this pic so it took some time to dry and look normal again.
Here’s a better picture in the daylight:
