I agree with Alex on his method. It is important to cut away / peel away as much as possible before using any kind of solvent. I use an old chisel or stiff short knife to get behind the caulk and gently try to peel it off in strips. Sometimes it works well, sometimes not so well. I prefer steel wool over a wire brush. If the client thinks the wire brush is going to ruin the finish on the brick then I would definitely tape the capping, sills and any related stuff before using any solvent or brush. Of course we all know that brick is so fragile [blink]
Couple other notes...
- If you have an RO90 using the Delta pad might be a good option to get the final bits of caulk off. I have not tried this but it sounds possible.
- If this is a smooth brick the following won't matter. However if you are dealing with a cut or wire style face brick, this may help you.
Before applying your actual finish caulk, brown, ivory, whatever. Apply a thin bead of clear caulk along where you think your finish caulk line will be. WHAT? I know it sounds dumb but it works. The clear caulk will fill the void in the cut/wire brick and disappear essentially, its clear. Once that dries it provides a nice smooth surface for you to run your final caulk onto and you can maintain a nice clean line. Obviously the previous guy might have just sucked. When applying caulk to a wire brick maintaining a clean line is difficult because the caulk follows the voids and gets all jagged looking. I've done this many times and it works nice. I do the clear on all the needed windows first, let stuff dry and come back and do the colored. Big window job this would obviously be a real time sink. I normally only do it around 1st floor or entry windows. If the client can see a bad caulk job on the 2nd floor then you have bigger issues.
I stopped using NP-1 years ago because clean up and working was a _itch. I'm a Solarseal guy, love the stuff.
Hope that helps, Markus
