Removing Plaster to Expose Brick

Place plastic drop cloths throughout the entire room. Cover windows and doors with the plastic as well as the floors. Either remove furniture from the room or cover the furniture with plastic drop cloths. Place garbage bins near the wall where you will work to make cleanup easier.

Put on safety glasses, a respirator and gloves. Plaster chips are very sharp, and plaster dust irritates lungs.

Chip away the plaster. Use a chisel to begin chipping through the protective coating of plaster. Do not chip too hard or you will damage the brick and mortar underneath the plaster. Use a masonry hammer to help you remove tougher pieces of plaster. Never use a regular hammer on plaster walls. A pry bar also is helpful to remove large pieces of plaster. Position the pry bar behind a large piece, and lever it outward.

Put a few squirts of non-dyed, degreasing liquid dish soap in a bucket with hot water. Use the dish soap-water mixture and a stiff bristle brush or brass brush to scrub the bricks. This task takes a lot of time, and the bricks may need several rounds of washing before they are completely clean.

Fix the bricks and/or mortar as necessary. Replace crumbling and broken bricks with new bricks. If the mortar is crumbling, patch over those areas with new mortar.

Seal the bricks with a commercial brick sealant, apply it with a paintbrush. One coat of sealant is typically enough.

Clean the room. Using a shop vacuum cleaner, or shop vac, will remove all the dust. Fold the drop cloths and dispose of them.