Brick cleaning and acid washing
Quoted after a look
including GST
no published band exists anywhere in Australia, so it is looked at first
Get a written priceBrick and acid cleaning across Sydney
Brick cleaning in Sydney, where the preparation matters more than the acid.
Mortar smears on new brickwork, cement residue, and the salt bloom that pushes back out of a drying wall. The acid does the work in minutes. Masking the glass, the frames, the paint and the garden, and saturating the wall first, is most of the day, and it is what decides whether the brick survives. This is also the one job on the site with no published figure, for a reason we set out below.
This one is quoted after a look, and we would rather say that than make a number up
We publish a rate card for almost everything, because eighteen of the twenty two Sydney operators we checked publish nothing at all. Brick cleaning is the exception, and the exception is honest: we went looking for an Australian published rate per square metre for brick, render or cladding and there is not one. Not in Sydney, not anywhere.
So there is no band to quote and nothing to anchor a number to. We are not going to borrow a rate from a different job and dress it up as a researched figure, because you would have no way of telling that number apart from the ones on the card that are real. You send photographs, we look, and the figure comes back with the wall described next to it.
Acid washing is a chemical process, and it is run like one
The lance is the least interesting part of this job. What matters is what is in the drum, how strong it is when it reaches the wall, what is protected before it gets there and where it goes afterwards.
Acid washing is a chemical process, not a stronger rinse
The acid does the work and the water only carries it. That is why the strength, the dwell time and the order of operations matter more than the pressure at the nozzle, and why a wall can be ruined by somebody in a hurry with the right equipment.
A safety data sheet for every product we bring
We hold the current sheet for each hazardous chemical we use and keep it available. If you want to know exactly what went on your wall, the answer is a document rather than a brand name half remembered on the day.
A hazardous chemical register, kept up to date
The product list and the sheets that go with it, maintained rather than assembled the week somebody asks. It is unglamorous, it is a duty we carry, and it is the difference between saying we work safely and being able to show it.
Biodegradable is a marketing word, not a permission
A product being biodegradable does not make it lawful to send down a drain. Detergent, acid and the sediment they lift are all pollutants in the stormwater system, so the wash water is contained and recovered whatever the label on the drum says.
The wall is wet down before and after
Saturating the brickwork first stops the acid being drawn deep into the pores, and rinsing and neutralising afterwards stops it working long after we have gone. Skipping either is how you get burn marks and a bloom of salt a month later.
Plants, glass and metal get covered
Acid finds aluminium window frames, garden beds and the neighbour's car. Masking and protecting them is part of the setup, not an extra, and it is most of the reason a careful job takes longer than a careless one.
The word biodegradable does not open a drain
It is a good marketing word and it appears on a lot of drums. It describes what a product does over time in soil. It says nothing about what happens when a few hundred litres of it, plus acid, plus the sediment lifted off a wall, arrives in a stormwater pit that runs straight to a creek.
So the containment does not change with the label. The work area is bounded, the drains in it are identified and covered, the water is recovered, and it leaves by a route that is lawful for what is in it. That is the same answer we give on every other page, and it is the same answer here.
Where acid is the wrong answer
Cement sheet, at any pressure and any chemistry
If the surface is or might be asbestos material, we stop and tell you to have it assessed. There is no version of this job that includes it.
Sandstone and heritage masonry
Soft, porous, historically significant stone is not the same trade. It gets looked at honestly, and where the right answer is somebody else we will say so.
Acid on a wall that does not need it
Plenty of tired brickwork is growth, dirt and dust, and that comes off with soft washing and dwell time. Reaching for acid when a wash would do is a good way to strip the face off perfectly sound brick.
Five things worth checking, on us or on anybody else
These are not the five things we are best at. They are the five that go wrong, taken from published reviews and forum threads about Sydney operators. Ask them of us. Then ask them of the next quote you get.
The written price is the price on the day
Price rising on arrival is the second most repeated complaint in this trade. You get the figure before we come, and the figure on the invoice is that figure.
A stated method for tile roofs that are not sarked
Water driven through the gaps in an unsarked tile roof is the worst failure in the whole category, and one operator called it normal. It is not normal. Tile is soft washed and the downpipes are handled before we start.
Broken tiles photographed and reported
The pattern in the complaints is damage painted over or glued. A broken tile goes in the report with a photograph, before anything is put back.
We turn up, and we call back
No shows after a quote are the single most repeated complaint across every listing checked. Every booking is confirmed by a person on the phone.
Ask us for the paperwork before you book
This site carries no licence number and no insurance figure, because we will not publish a document we cannot hand you. Ask, and you get the document or a straight answer about what we do not have.
Brick and acid cleaning questions
How much does brick cleaning in Sydney cost?
It is quoted after a look, and there is no figure on this page on purpose. We went looking for a published Australian rate per square metre for brick, render or cladding and there is not one, in Sydney or anywhere else. Rather than invent a band or borrow one from a different job, we look at the wall. The minimum for an attended job is $249 including GST, and that is the only number this service has.
Why publish prices everywhere else and not here?
Because a published price should be built on something. Our other figures come from a market we measured. For brick cleaning that market publishes nothing, so a number here would be a guess wearing the same typeface as the researched ones, and you would have no way to tell them apart.
What is acid washing for?
Mortar smears and cement residue left on new brickwork, and the salt bloom that comes back out of a wall as it dries. It is a chemical job that dissolves what a wash cannot shift, which is also why it is the wrong tool for ordinary dirt and growth.
Is the acid safe around my garden and windows?
Only if somebody has made it so. Plants, glass, aluminium frames and anything painted are covered and protected before a drop goes on the wall, the brickwork is saturated first, and everything is rinsed and neutralised afterwards. That preparation is most of the job.
Where does the wash water go?
It is contained and recovered, never to the stormwater system. That holds whether the product is described as biodegradable or not, because a friendly label does not create an exemption for what goes down a drain.
Can you tell me what chemicals you used?
Yes, by name and by document. We keep the current safety data sheet for every hazardous chemical we carry and a register that lists them, so the answer to that question is a sheet you can file rather than a recollection.
Will acid washing damage my bricks?
It can, in the wrong hands or on the wrong wall, and that is why we look first. Some brick is too soft, some has already been sealed or painted, and some just needs a soft wash. You get told which one you have before anybody quotes it.
Send us the wall
A wide photograph and a close one of the worst of it, and whether the brickwork is new, painted or sealed. The diary opens on 29 October 2026.