I did an experiment today by just squeezing some lemon juice on 2 of the bricks that had efflorescence, and almost immediately I could see the efflorescence disappear !! I did not even brush it in or anything. So tomorrow I go to Costco and get 98 ozs of lemon juice for $6.49. That is a lot cheaper than the $50 and $60 efflorescence removers they have for sale. And most of the reviews I've read for the expensive $60 removers says they are not all that effective either,. I am so impressed and thankful that I came across your video. Thanks!!!!!
This totally worked. Remodeling my kitchen that had the chimney run through it but was covered in Plaster AND mortar. Just using water, brush and sponge was not working. Thanks for posting!
Thanks for the great tip. I did some stucco work and ended up having the white film of concrete on my bricks. I got a gallon of lemon juice, poured it on the affected areas, brushed, swept, then washed the area. Wow. Like magic.
Very interesting. I’ve always used muriatic acid because it’s only $6 a gallon and I’m usually cleaning a large area. This seems useful while working inside of a finished home, cleaning a small area. I’ll have to try it. Thanks for the video
Great tip! Just had the stone and brick replaced on my house since the builder for the previous owners chose not to put a weather ristive barrier on the house and rain permeated through the walls. Anyways this should work great to get rid of the ugly chalk like staining they left behind.
Just finished a small red brick wall. was considering using a commercial acid product, but this is something a lot cheaper and less hazardous. Thanks for the tip.
Thank you for this video, I redid my front stairs this week and I made a mess with the mortar, I used a gallon of lemon juice and now it looks a million times better. I agree muriatic acid can be harsh, you saved the day for $10!!!
Your tip using lemon juice really helped me out with brick mortar haze clean up on my chimney. My bricks are a very rough texture, so I need to repeat the lemon juice method about 3 times, with wire brushing in between, but it works well. I didn't want to do the acid method. Thanks again.
I tried 24 percent vinegar because in Canada they don't sell 30 at home depots near me. Only 10. Then I tried lemon juice. Lemon juice worked a lot better for me.
Really great! Like you, I hate using muratic acid bc - while it will clean the haze, it also eats into the new mortar repairs - I love that the lemon juice is natural & safe! It's obvious you just used store-bought, pre-packaged lemon juice that comes in those little lemon-shaped containers - but it comes in larger bottles too. Thanx again!!
Thanks Sheila! Yes, I first tried it out with the smaller container. I did go back and buy the bigger ones once it was tested. Much more bang for the buck!
So, I tried it and while it did have some effect, it did not get rid of it even with some labor intensive scrubbing. I suspect it may work fine with a very light dusting of cement powder but it had no effect on anything even slightly heavier. Bought some muriatic acid today.
Seems like a good job for citric acid powder. I always keep a big bag around. You can mix it to whatever strength you want and use it anywhere you’d use lemon juice or vinegar for cleaning. A bag of a few pounds is the equivalent of dozens of jugs of vinegar or similar, but much cheaper and obviously easier to store. You can also use it for cooking - it’s the same powdery stuff you find on sour skittles and gummis!
I have to do coping stones on a pool. Cost by cost, muriatic acid comes out cheaper. However, I'm not willing to etch the gunnite with muriatic acid before plaster. So, I'll be using lemon juice and sucking up the additional cost. Thanks for the tip; I've tried it on a small portion of coping and it definitely works.
mortar is a combination of sand, cement, and lime. The staining is from the lime. Lime is a base. You can clean lime stains with any acid. Just as long as it's clear since you don't want to stain it with something else. Sprite, lemon juice, seltzer, baking soda, vinegar all work to some degree. BUY whatever is cheapest.
Thanks so much! I'm going to try this on egg stains. Some neighborhood kids egged a bunch of houses, and mine has one streaked down the side. 😞 Little farts.
Had to Do an emergency brick step repair today 50 degrees so will take a while to dry…likely be back to winter cold here in cny sunday…i got residual all over otherwise mortar would turn to soup and never set in the cold…so am I screwed? Or just need a ton of lemon juice/vinegar come spring? Prefer not to use real strong acid
If it bubbles it means it's lime mortar otherwise its portland so may not be effective for that but I'll try it. This isn't proper tuck pointing, but for some reason in the US you guys call it that
Yes, should work with regular lemons. Just a lot more expensive! The brick repairs still look great, so doesn’t appear to cause any unwanted after effects.
This actually works! Thanks so much for this tip! I was trying to find ways not to harm my flowers and bushes. Thank you so much, you’re amazing!
I did an experiment today by just squeezing some lemon juice on 2 of the bricks that had efflorescence, and almost immediately I could see the efflorescence disappear !! I did not even brush it in or anything. So tomorrow I go to Costco and get 98 ozs of lemon juice for $6.49. That is a lot cheaper than the $50 and $60 efflorescence removers they have for sale. And most of the reviews I've read for the expensive $60 removers says they are not all that effective either,. I am so impressed and thankful that I came across your video. Thanks!!!!!
Awesome, never would have thought about using it for that application. But glad it worked out!
Your tips are terrific! Seriously. You saved so much time!
This totally worked. Remodeling my kitchen that had the chimney run through it but was covered in Plaster AND mortar. Just using water, brush and sponge was not working. Thanks for posting!
Thanks for the great tip. I did some stucco work and ended up having the white film of concrete on my bricks. I got a gallon of lemon juice, poured it on the affected areas, brushed, swept, then washed the area. Wow. Like magic.
Just tried this on June 7th and it works just great...thanks for the tip and for saving me some money.
Worked like a charm. Thanks.
Very interesting. I’ve always used muriatic acid because it’s only $6 a gallon and I’m usually cleaning a large area. This seems useful while working inside of a finished home, cleaning a small area. I’ll have to try it. Thanks for the video
Great tip! Just had the stone and brick replaced on my house since the builder for the previous owners chose not to put a weather ristive barrier on the house and rain permeated through the walls. Anyways this should work great to get rid of the ugly chalk like staining they left behind.
I used to work with Muriatic Acid for cleaning bricks before but I was looking for an alternative Thank you.
Just finished a small red brick wall. was considering using a commercial acid product, but this is something a lot cheaper and less hazardous. Thanks for the tip.
This worked like a charm! Thank you for sharing!
Great idea, had one recently where I couldn't use acid as it would burn artificial grass. Wish I had thought of this then
What a superb tip .... thanks for taking the time to show us .... Chris in the UK
Thank you for this video, I redid my front stairs this week and I made a mess with the mortar, I used a gallon of lemon juice and now it looks a million times better. I agree muriatic acid can be harsh, you saved the day for $10!!!
Glad it worked out for you!
Your tip using lemon juice really helped me out with brick mortar haze clean up on my chimney. My bricks are a very rough texture, so I need to repeat the lemon juice method about 3 times, with wire brushing in between, but it works well. I didn't want to do the acid method. Thanks again.
Correction; Found something BETTER than lemon juice. VINEGAR!....You can get 30% vinegar at HD...Works better than lemon juice...
Do you dilute the 30% vinegar with water before applying it to the bricks?
I tried 24 percent vinegar because in Canada they don't sell 30 at home depots near me. Only 10. Then I tried lemon juice. Lemon juice worked a lot better for me.
You just saved my job!!!
Now that worked great! Thanks
Brilliant! I’m gonna try this
Now this was the exact video I needed, didn't think of lemon juice!!! Off to the shop :) :)
Really great! Like you, I hate using muratic acid bc - while it will clean the haze, it also eats into the new mortar repairs - I love that the lemon juice is natural & safe!
It's obvious you just used store-bought, pre-packaged lemon juice that comes in those little lemon-shaped containers - but it comes in larger bottles too.
Thanx again!!
Thanks Sheila! Yes, I first tried it out with the smaller container. I did go back and buy the bigger ones once it was tested. Much more bang for the buck!
Thank you Sir!
Excellent. Going to try it out on my sidewalk I repaired with new brick. Thanks for the tip!
So, I tried it and while it did have some effect, it did not get rid of it even with some labor intensive scrubbing. I suspect it may work fine with a very light dusting of cement powder but it had no effect on anything even slightly heavier. Bought some muriatic acid today.
Seems like a good job for citric acid powder. I always keep a big bag around. You can mix it to whatever strength you want and use it anywhere you’d use lemon juice or vinegar for cleaning. A bag of a few pounds is the equivalent of dozens of jugs of vinegar or similar, but much cheaper and obviously easier to store. You can also use it for cooking - it’s the same powdery stuff you find on sour skittles and gummis!
Thank you for this video.
Thank you so much 😊
super helpful thanks!
Thank you
I have to do coping stones on a pool. Cost by cost, muriatic acid comes out cheaper. However, I'm not willing to etch the gunnite with muriatic acid before plaster. So, I'll be using lemon juice and sucking up the additional cost. Thanks for the tip; I've tried it on a small portion of coping and it definitely works.
Glad it works Paul!
Brilliant - thank you, now all I need is a dry day in Northern Ireland.
mortar is a combination of sand, cement, and lime. The staining is from the lime. Lime is a base. You can clean lime stains with any acid. Just as long as it's clear since you don't want to stain it with something else. Sprite, lemon juice, seltzer, baking soda, vinegar all work to some degree. BUY whatever is cheapest.
Thank you!!!!
Thanks so much! I'm going to try this on egg stains. Some neighborhood kids egged a bunch of houses, and mine has one streaked down the side. 😞 Little farts.
brick acid in the uk. it costs less than lemon juice although id imagine that it smells lovely.
What can you use after to protect the brick from it happening again. Or is this something you have to keep doing
CZcams algorithm recommended this video to me. So I watched it and it helped!
Will this work on any formed concrete? How about blue stone?
Thanks! nice to know there is a more natural alternative.
Thanks Steve!
Great tip! It’s a much safer acid wash! I can’t help but mention that you used the wrong mortar mix on your repointing though…
Repointing my house now. This works remarkably well. Thanks!
Thank you for the video
Thanks for thé tip!!!!
Thank you you I have hope now.
Thanks it worked
Great idea! I will try that tomorrow! Thanks for the vid!
Did it work for you?
Does this work on pavers as well
I'm going down to the shop and get this. This could be BIG!
Great tip!
Question: are these mortar stains from lime or cement based mortar? Assume the latter, but perhaps not with the lemon juice bubbling!
*Would vinegar work?*
Does vinegar work too?
Does vinegar work as well?
Thanks absolutely brilliant had a water mark from water out of our combi boiler
Thanks Harry!
This was very impressive
Had to
Do an emergency brick step repair today 50 degrees so will take a while to dry…likely be back to winter cold here in cny sunday…i got residual all over otherwise mortar would turn to soup and never set in the cold…so am
I screwed? Or just need a ton of lemon juice/vinegar come spring? Prefer not to use real strong acid
Thx man great vid .....
Thanks Mike!
Will those work on mortan stain?
Think that will stain my roof shingles on the rinse off after cleaning up my chimney stack?
Muratic acid is fine for most brick.
Sure-Kleen is an Acid/detergent blend for masonry
interesting because soaps are basic pH
great vid will have to try
Thanks Mike!
Will this work on those white patches on red brick? I think they're hard water stains
What does it look like after it dries. Wet brick hides efflorescence
What about white vinegar?
How old is the staining 10 years old? Or two days?
learnup on sealing
What about vinegar?
I like it when he sid he'd have to get a lot of lemon juice
I repointed my brickwork. Left it to dry a few days.
I tried this and it smeared the cement all over the brick.
What did I do wrong?
Great video mate, would this lemon juice work on oil stain on a driveway ?
I believe that would be a totally different application, so I’m not sure how that would work. Worth a try though, let us know!
If it bubbles it means it's lime mortar otherwise its portland so may not be effective for that but I'll try it. This isn't proper tuck pointing, but for some reason in the US you guys call it that
Did this work for you? My mortar stain has portland in it and is not 100% type k lime mortar so I was curious.
Can't believe the residue removal is that easy. I assume white vinegar will work as well?
I looked up the percentage of acid and lemon juice and it is identical to vinegar. 5%. I’m betting it will work as well. Cheers
Wow!
*Guuuuud...*
citric acid works well... better and cheaper if you buy the pure stuff but don't smell as good. :D
Now you just need to grow a lemon orchard to do your house.
Wow!!! Not surprised because lemon juice is acidic!
Would this work with actual lemons or is the juice you used more concentrated? How did the brick hold up after this type of cleaning?
Yes, should work with regular lemons. Just a lot more expensive! The brick repairs still look great, so doesn’t appear to cause any unwanted after effects.
@@danofmanytrades863 thank you so much. My parents have a lemon tree I plan on raiding when we visit for Christmas lol
@@danofmanytrades863 my bro has a lemon tree
If that bottles not in the video, I'd say he's 100% peeing
I'll try this on my Indian Sandstone
How did it work out?
Not tuck pointing!
Wow
I started this mid-video and thought you were peeing on the bricks
How old is the mortar staining??
That was recent, I had just completed some tuck pointing.
Is that lemon juice "from concentrate" or real lemon juice?
That was concentrate. I believe either would work though.
@@danofmanytrades863 I used concentrate, worked well. Thanks, great tip.
A total bust. I tried it on pavers. Didnt do a thing. 😢
I just tried. It didn't work for me.
show it DRY. ITS STILL WET
Fake.Not working
Thank you
You’re welcome!
Will this work on brick pavers?
Diedre, I haven’t tried it, but if you try it and it works, let us know!