Removing sealing mastic from brick

[Satch]

Had the garage door changed a while ago (an electric multi section insulated wonder, if I say so myself) and the frame sit on the inner brick face of the door space.

Now the frame of the old one was mounted inside the apeture and was sealed with the ususal white silicon mastic. Been trying to get it off for ages.

Cut the excess off with a Stanley knife blade & scraped but it leaves a really hard to shift white rubbery residue on the brick. What softens this stuff?

Tried burning a bit off and it left a nasty mess that I had to wire brush for ages to get off

 

[SG CL500]

you can get sealant remover - try screwfix or similar - not sure how well it works though

 

[Howard]

That sealant remover from Screwfix is really only for removing from round the bath etc ..... and its not that good at that either ....

Not sure of a solution mate really, can you cut the worst off with a blade and then with a wire brush in a drill get the rest off, some will have 'soaked' into the brick itself though which may be a pain !

Ideally you want to find a powerful solvent for the ingredients of the sealer , cut the majority off with a blade and then a stiff scrubbing brush and the solvent... although this could be a problem to find the solvent if you don't know what sealer it is .....

Satch, i've got a couple of tubes of sealant remover that i bought and thought were crap, they are unopened and sitting in my garge, if you want you can have them for free , to give them a go !! they go in a sealant gun and you squeeze them onto the old sealant and it's meant to soften and then disolve it ...

Let me know !

H

 

[Satch]

Thanks. I have a tube of the stuff for taking bath sealant off but all it did was make it gooey. Think the trouble is that it is attached to a porous surface and, now I come to think of it, many window and door sealant mastic are fire resistant!

That would be why it was just charring on the surface and leaving a hard residue, not burning off.

Ho hum. Just have to scrape and wire brush the lot

 

[Benzowner]

There used to be several products on the market, concrete cleaner and brick cleaner were two of them don't know if they are still available, they were a bit caustic, but certainly did what they said on the label, try a builders merchant