Hi all,

I have just bought a house that has dark exterior bricks for cladding and there is some nasty hard to remove white stains on the dark brick work.

At first I thought this was efflorescence as that's what the building inspection called it and looking online that made sense, and it could possibly be, but I have since learnt it could also be water stains, like that hard to remove stuff that appears on shower glass over time (I think its the metals in the water or something). The pattern of the staining does match what would be a typical spray pattern of a sprinklers water hitting the house. 

I have tried scrubbing the stains while applying boiling water, scrubbing them while applying straight white vinegar, then I even got brick layers in who applied something called "Green Acid Replacement", which is apparently good for removing efflorescence, but none of those methods worked at all.

From looking around online and going off what a few tradies have told me it could be time to consider using hydrochloric acid, but if not done correctly this can cause more issues than good, eg to weak mix wont work, to string will ruin the bricks appearance. There is also the hassle of keeping it off the window frames and deck etc.

Has anyone else dealt with this stuff effectively weather it be efflorescence or hard water stains?