01
Acid on dry brick
The single most common cause of acid burn. Dry brick drinks the acid straight into the body of the unit where no rinse can reach it, and it keeps reacting for weeks.
Acid burnThink Brick accredited · Illawarra & South Coast
Brick cleaning
is chemistry,
not brute force.
Twenty years of brick cleaning, acid washing, pressure cleaning and masonry stain removal. Brickwork gets the right chemistry, concrete and roofs get the right pressure, and nothing gets guessed at — because the wrong call here does not give you a slightly worse result, it gives you a permanent one.
- 20+
- Years on the tools
- 20
- Services
- 21+
- Suburbs covered
Why accreditation actually matters
Brick manufacturers extend product warranty on the condition that cleaning is carried out correctly. Think Brick Australia accreditation is the recognised evidence of that. A clean that burns an elevation is generally not a claim against the brick — it becomes the builder’s defect to fix before handover.
- Think Brick Australia accredited
- Fully insured, domestic & commercial
- 20+ years on the tools
- Chemical-specific stain work
Think Brick accredited
Fully insured
20+ years experience
Illawarra to the Highlands
Why we exist
Three mistakes that cost more than the clean did
Most of the remediation work we do is repairing someone else’s clean. These three account for the overwhelming majority of it, and all three are entirely avoidable if the brick is identified before the chemical is chosen.
02
Acid on cream brick
Light bricks can carry vanadium salts. Acid converts a removable yellow-green stain into a fixed brown one. There is no coming back from it.
Vanadium staining03
High pressure on the wrong surface
Render, roof tiles, sandstone, timber and old brick all lose material under a lance. The dirt goes and so does the surface holding it.
Soft washingQuick answer
What does a brick cleaner actually do?
A brick cleaner removes cured mortar smear, cement film and mineral staining from masonry using controlled chemistry rather than pressure — typically a diluted hydrochloric acid solution applied to fully saturated brickwork, then neutralised and rinsed. The trade also covers stain-specific work such as efflorescence, vanadium, manganese and acid burn, each of which requires different chemistry. In Australia the recognised standard is Think Brick Australia accreditation.
At a glance
- Accreditation
- Think Brick Australia
- Based
- Warilla NSW 2528
- Coverage
- Helensburgh to Ulladulla
- Inland to
- Bowral, Mittagong, Moss Vale
- Insurance
- Domestic & commercial
Our own jobs
The same wall, one clean apart
Before
After
Before
After
Half cleaned, one frame
What we do
20 services, one contractor
Pressure & soft wash
Identify it first
Nine stains. Nine different chemistries.
Several of these look almost identical and want completely opposite treatment. Acid removes one and permanently sets another. Work out which one you have before anybody touches the wall.
Efflorescence
White, powdery, fluffy
Very treatable — but fix the water
Calcium & Lime
White, hard, crusty or glassy
Treatable — harder than efflorescence
Vanadium
Yellow, yellow-green, olive
Removable — unless acid has been used
Manganese
Brown, grey-brown, tan streaking
Removable with the right chemistry
Acid Burn
Bleached, yellowed, patchy, exposed aggregate
Improvable — rarely fully reversible
Rust
Orange, red-brown, running streaks
Very treatable with correct chemistry
Iron Staining
Orange-brown, diffuse, blotchy
Treatable — needs care on stone
Mould & Lichen
Black, green, grey-white patches
Very treatable — kill it, do not blast it
Fire & Smoke Damage
Black soot, brown scorching, tar film
Usually recoverable
Where we work
Helensburgh to Ulladulla, and inland to the Highlands
Based at Warilla on the Illawarra coast, which puts the Shoalhaven, the Southern Highlands and the southern Sutherland Shire all inside comfortable reach.
Illawarra
Wollongong · Shellharbour · Albion Park · Dapto · Kiama · Shell Cove
6 suburbsShoalhaven
Nowra · Bomaderry · Vincentia · Huskisson · Berry · Culburra Beach · Ulladulla
7 suburbsSouthern Highlands
Bowral · Mittagong · Moss Vale · Bundanoon
4 suburbsSutherland Shire
Helensburgh · Engadine · Sutherland · Cronulla
4 suburbsFAQ
The questions we get asked most
How much does brick cleaning cost?
Brick cleaning is priced on the elevation area, the brick type and the condition of the wall rather than a flat square-metre rate, because a new-home clean and a sixty-year-old wall covered in lichen are completely different jobs. New residential builds are usually quoted per home. Send photos and a rough size and we will give you a real number rather than a range.
How long after bricklaying should bricks be cleaned?
Generally 7 to 14 days. The mortar needs to have cured enough that acid will not erode the joints, but not so long that the cement film has hardened onto the brick face. Cleaning too early rakes out green joints; leaving it several months makes the job far more aggressive than it needed to be.
Is pressure washing the same thing as brick cleaning?
No. Pressure washing removes what is loosely sitting on a surface. Brick cleaning removes cured cement and mineral staining chemically. High pressure alone will not shift mortar smear, and on older or softer brick it strips the fired face and blows out the mortar joints.
Do you do work for builders?
Yes, and it is a large part of what we do. Volume builders and bricklaying contractors across the Illawarra, Shoalhaven and Southern Highlands book us against brickwork completion dates on a rolling schedule. Accreditation and certificates of currency are supplied for your compliance file.
Do you charge to come and quote?
No. Most jobs we can price accurately from a few good daylight photos and a description, which saves everyone a trip. Where it needs a look in person — remediation work, heritage buildings, commercial sites — we come and look, and there is no charge for that.
Are you insured?
Yes, with public liability cover for domestic and commercial work including strata, high-rise and rail environments. Certificates of currency are supplied on request and as standard on commercial engagements.
Next step
Send a photo. Get a straight answer.
Most jobs we can price from a few good photos and a description. If it needs a look in person, we will come and look.