Removing paint on exterior of brick walls

[Sarah Kuppert]

I am considering purchasing a townhouse to rent out out in Baltimore, Maryland that has painted brick on the outside. Since lead is a problem in older townhouses in Baltimore, I would either have to paint over the 2 story house to cover until potential lead paint(which is at the end of the street, so it has more outdoor surface than other townhouses). I would rather just remove all the paint so I don’t have to deal with maintenance. I am not sure if it’ll get rid of the lead completely and if it’s feasible and affordable. Is it maybe even possible to choose a different siding over the brick, to encase it more permanently?

[Deanna McCormick]

First do a test on the paint to see if it actually has lead in it or not. IT might not....

Second we did a 10 building complex 2 story builidngs, that had paint on the brick,, we sand blasted the paint off as much as we could.. the look of the exposed brick with partial paint on it had a old European look which is WOW really popular now.. the owner did copper clad trim on windows and copper color lighting to make it really look awesome. Put tarps down on the ground before you blast to collect as much of the paint chips as possible,,mow the yard short first,, then after tarp is removed, mow again with bagger to get up the rest of the paint chips..