So, maybe you've got an efflorescence or salt deposit problem with your own bricks or stone
wall like this one right here.
Hi! I'm Jeff with Home Repair Tutor.
In this quick video, I'm going to share with you a specific tip or method that has helped
me clean our stone walls and get them looking better after being inundated with efflorescent.
Now, I'm not a guru. I don't do this full-time. But I figured I'd share this video with you
and maybe it will help you out. So let's get started.
When cleaning efflorescence, it's always best to use a gentlest method first and then it
might actually just be vinegar because vinegar is only about 6% acidity. Now, if that doesn't
work for you, I highly recommend muriatic acid. Now, with muriatic acid, you need to
have safety goggles, safety clothing and rubber gloves. Otherwise, you can burn yourself and
always add acid to water.
Now, I'm mixing up about 12 ounces to one gallon of water and then I'm going to stir
it using a wood stirrer, not metal, but wood or plastic. Now, I highly recommend testing
the muriatic acid on your stone wall on a small section first. So pre-soak it with water
then scrub the acid on and let it sit for 5-10 minutes. Then rinse it off with water
and check and see how it reacts.
As you can see here, my wall is just covered in efflorescence. It looks terrible. And I'm
going to pre-soak it with water like I did in the test run. And by the way, the test
run concluded that the muriatic acid wasn't going to harm my wall. Then I'm going to use
a plastic scrub brush and apply the acid to all the sections that have really bad efflorescence.
So, you shouldn't have to scrub too much. You just want to apply the acid and let it
fizz. And when it fizzes on the efflorescence, that's when you know that it's a strong enough
solution. So once you're done applying the acid, you need to rinse it off real good with
water.
I took one additional step to neutralize any other remaining acid that was on the stone
wall. And that was that ½ cup of baking soda to one gallon of water and stirred up really
well using a wood stirrer. In fact, I'm just using the same wood stirrer used for the acid.
And then apply the baking soda solution to the wall with my scrub brush. This is just
going to neutralize any of the remaining muriatic acid.
I did have an issue with vertical and horizontal efflorescence in seams of the stone brick.
So use the edge of a wire brush scraper to remove any of that. And I finally sprayed
down the wall really well with water.
Now, here is the before. Here is what my wall looked like before and I only treated in between
the two lights. As you can see it, the results are really great. It took a multiple individual
applications of the acid but I'm very happy with the results.
Alright, so this is one method that works to remove efflorescence from a stone or a
brick wall. Is it perfect? Absolutely not. Does it work? Yes. You'll see results. It's
just a matter of how much effort you want to put into it. And the huge thing that you
should do, again, I mentioned this at the beginning, but make sure you test the muriatic
acid on a section of your wall to make sure that it doesn't ruin the stone or the brick.
That's a huge thing that you should do.
Alright, if you liked this video and it helped you can always click the thumbs up button
over on YouTube. And you can subscribe at my YouTube channel if you're looking for more
DIY tips that'll help you around the house. So, go ahead and click the subscribe button
as well. And you can go to HomeRepairTutor.com and check out a ton of other home repair projects
and cleaning projects that I have done in the past.
So, thanks for joining me. I really appreciate your time. I hope you have a great day and
I'll see you in the next video. Take care!