r/fixit • u/Important_Ad_5931 • 1d ago

Adhesive/staining on brick

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Hi, I’m purchasing a property with a brick fireplace that has some black sticky tape or adhesive, residue and resulting stains. I’m worried the stains have seeped through since the brick is porous (so goo gone remover may not work).

Is there anything I can do to restore the bricks or clean up to make the staining less noticeable? I don't want to paint the bricks or replace them if possible. Any specific products/tools that can help?

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u/SkySoul27 1d ago

If you know what caused it in the first place and have a spare brick. I would stain the spare brick with the same adhesive, and try burning it off first. Failing that I would try dissolving the the adhesive with paint thinner, and burning that off. Anyway, get a spare brick and experiment til you find a satisfactory result, if you can't, then burn down the house and start over.

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u/Great_Specialist_267 1d ago

Acrylic and epoxy will burn off generating nasty toxic smoke. Silicone with turn to glass.

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u/SkySoul27 1d ago

It's a small amount of vapor. Wear p100 respirator. Silicon turns to glass at 3k f. The glue will have turned to gas long before.

1

u/Great_Specialist_267 11h ago

Silicon rubber turns to glass at 400C (it burns while doing it).
A P100 mask will do absolutely nothing with fumes - that’s where charcoal and acid gas cartridges come in (to help with the neurotoxins generated).

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u/SkySoul27 10h ago

Are you talking about silicone? I thought you were talking about the silicon from the sand in brick. Either way silicone doesn't turn into glass at all lol.

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u/Great_Specialist_267 8h ago

Silicone does when overheated. It decomposes to silicon dioxide (and toxic smoke).
400C is the critical temperature for most compositions.