Sandblast painted brick?

[Randy Klein]

I have your typical midwest brick ranch house. However, the previous owners painted the brick a rather boring gray color. We're the only house in the neighborhood with painted brick. I asked the neighbors and they don't remember the brick being a hideous shade and don't know why they painted.

My question: Is there a cheap and easy way to strip the paint? Or is it messy and expensive?

[Jim O'Dell]

Randy, LOML and I have investigated this on a smaller project. Previous owners of our house were into baby blue...painted the fireplace! it was the same brick as the outside of the house and would have been really nice. Since it is inside, she will not allow my to try to bead or sand blast it because of the mess. This shouldn't pose a problem for you outside. There are some citrus cleaners that are supposed to do a decent job, but outside that would take a lot of it. But either method I'm afraid, will leave evidence of the paint down in the cracks and crevices.
If I were you, I'd pull back some trim at one of the doors or windows and try to see the brick color to make sure that's what you want. If not, the other idea I'm tossing around for my delima is to faux paint it to look like brick again.:) Jim.

[John Shuk]

I've seen it powerwashed. I'm sure it is messy though.