The previous owners of our house for some reason chose to paint the external brickwork on the lower half of the house (upper half is kinda pebbledash) a horrible dark reddish colour. They also painted the pointing black, and the pointing is done as a straight slope rather than the usual curved pointing. It seems the mortar is recessed about 15mm and then on top of that the pointing was done in a strange white substance which can be chipped out separately to the mortar.
We are adding a single storey extension to the side so need to match the bricks with the current bricks. We would like to take the existing bricks back to their original state and redo the pointing. I bought some specialised acid from the UK but not sure if it will do the job so want to consider other options including brick restoration companies. So any advice or suggestions would be much appreciated, as would rough cost estimates (about 6sq metres of brick).
We are adding a single storey extension to the side so need to match the bricks with the current bricks. We would like to take the existing bricks back to their original state and redo the pointing. I bought some specialised acid from the UK but not sure if it will do the job so want to consider other options including brick restoration companies. So any advice or suggestions would be much appreciated, as would rough cost estimates (about 6sq metres of brick).