When I first shared about the back wall of our house, I thought aloud about allowing ivy to grow up in certain areas and just keep it trimmed so it didn’t take over.  However, after pulling it from all over the yard and seeing it try to climb into windows (successfully in the case of a basement window that was left open), I decided against it.  I do still love the look of ivy growing (thoughtneatly trimmed) on a building, but I realized it’s not as easy to control the growth as I imagined and the damage and discoloration it leaves behind on the brick is unsightly and I don’t want to accumulate more.  So, English ivy has become another nemesis along with Bishop’s weed/goutweed and I’ve been scraping it off the house, cutting it off the fence (which we’re replacing this week), and pulling it out of the yard. The next thing on my list was cleaning the ivy roots and stains off the brick.

Last spring, when Jeff power-washed the gutters, trim, patio, and pool deck, he test-sprayed a few places on the brick to see how it would work at cleaning off the ivy roots and stains.  It was effective at removing them, but it also removed the subtle white wash effect on the brick leaving them a little pinker than the rest.  It didn’t look bad, but we were concerned at the amount of material the powerwasher was potentially removing from the brick and we wanted to find a gentler way to clean the bricks.

You can see to the right of the small window in the photo below where the bricks were power-washed.  So, I read some articles and decided to try a few different methods.  One method for cleaning ivy roots and stains off brick was to use a wire brush.  I tested that out, but it still was a bit too harsh and removed the whitewash finish, so I switched to a nylon brush.  I wasn’t convinced that would do the trick since the ivy roots are stubborn, but it did work at removing the roots, cleaning the brick, and leaving the finish intact.  It was gentle and effective, which is just what we were looking for.  The only downside is we needed to clean each brick which would take time.

Cleaning ivy roots and stains off brick is the kind of project you only need to do once (unless you let the ivy grow back) and then it’s done, so it’s worth taking the time to do it and do it right.

It’s the sort of thing that detracted from the beauty of the brick and made the house look a little neglected, so I wanted to get it cleaned up before we installed new shutters and put a fresh coat of paint on the eaves and fascia.

Mom came to help me with this project since she gets to help with all the super fun things.  First, we wetted down the area of brick we were cleaning.  This softens the ivy roots a bit and minimizes dust when scraping and scrubbing.

I cleaned the top ten rows in the photo below and you can see what a difference it made even when the brick was still wet…

While the brick is wet, use a putty knife to gently scrape ivy roots off the brick and mortar.  We didn’t get every scrap of root off, but we removed the bulk of the stuck-on material.

Next, we followed up with a stiff-bristled nylon scrub brush to clean the brick…

You can see there are still a few straggler roots, but the brick looks much cleaner.

The nylon scrub brush works well, but the nylon brush attachment we bought for the drill worked even better.  We just put a little pressure on it and ran it along a brick after the roots were scraped off and it did a fantastic job at cleaning the stains and remnants of roots without having to scrub manually.

We would then rinse the wall and you could see the dirt coming off.

If you still have ivy living on the walls, I would suggest cutting it where it attaches to the root and let it die for a few days before you pull it off.  A putty knife helps loosen areas where the roots are well-established.  I sprayed ivy roots and stumps that were wedged against the house and difficult to dig out with some Ivy & Brush Killer to hopefully kill it to the root and prevent it from coming back.  I’ll also keep an eye on it and pull any new sprouts that emerge.

Doesn’t it look so much better after cleaning the ivy roots and stains off the brick?  It only took a couple of hours with two of us working and it makes a big difference.  It’s one of those details that can make a house look well kept.

This is fence week, so we’re going to replace the privacy fence as a family, and then we’ll work on edging the garden bed under the windows, replacing the shutters, painting the trim, and building a custom screen around the AC to hide it a bit better.  I’ll share the detailed plans for it in another post, but it’s going to look sharp.  When we have to replace the AC unit, we’ll have it moved so it’s not right next to the patio.  We’ll also replace the windows once they reach the top of the big-ticket-items financial priority list.  I can’t wait to see it all finished, but it’s really coming along.

In case you like seeing the process in action, here is a video tutorial showing how we cleaned the brick…

With the pool and patio area, our back yard is really a sanctuary and we want to make it a delightful place for our family and guests.  Getting everything clean and tidy is a big part of that.

We were watching a British show on farming last week and one of the farmers was telling the story about a new piece of land they were working on.  He said it’s like a big ship – it takes a long time to turn it around and change course.  I feel that same way about an overgrown yard.  We’ve turned the wheel, but it’s taking a while to get the entire ship on a new course.  We’re heading in the right direction, though.