Hi,

We have removed an eye sore of a porch that joined the two front bay windows (previous owner built it himself)unfortunately they painted the stone inside the porch and now we have a horrible beige patch on the front of the house where the porch once stood.

What we would like to do is remove the paint but still have the black aged look of the rest of the house. I realise with sandblasting this will not be possible. Are there less aggressive ways to remove the paint (it is quite thick)?

Also, are there ways to “age” the stone to match the rest of the house?

I hope this makes sense on what we are trying to achieve.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Professional paint stripper from ebay (that has the good stuff in – starchem, synstrip etc) should remove the paint easily. Then hope they didn’t prep the stone much before painting

Wire brush and elbow grease? Aging used to involve a mixture of natural yogurt and cow shit, brushed over the stone to encourage the growth of lichens and such. Generally, natural aging and weathering will soften and blend, but an organic coating to encourage the growth of the microflora to help the process along won’t hurt.

Paint stripper and a lot of hard effort. Id probably go own brand since they stopped putting dcm in nothing works as well. I use acid based or methanol based at work. Methanol works better.

You could also try mechanical means. Were brushes on a drive. Maybe hire a bristle battery or needle gun.

You might be able to jet wash it off with something suitably powerful. I don’t know if people do small scale hydroblasting or if it is even apprpriate for masonary but could ne worth a look. You may be able to find someone to slurrey blast it also.

Whatever you do test it on a small patch first!

See if anyone locally does soda blasting, less aggressive compared to sandblasting

There’s a whole host of abrasive media that can be used ranging from crushed nut shell up to sand/gravel. Find a specialist to do the job who can advise on which media to use and how to achieve the aged stone effect quickly. What type of stone is it as some sandstones will get a patina quite quickly (e.g. Frauenkirche in Dresden is only 12 years old but the stone is starting to look like it has been there ages).

Great stuff. Thanks, this is really useful.