Had a small retaining wall and 2 wide steps built last autumn (brickwork to match the house) and it’s started to turn white-ish, I’ve since read its effervescence, I think salt leaving the brick.
I’ve tried cleaning it with an effervescence solution to no avail, what other options do I have?

I don’t really want to paint the wall and steps, any other ways to reduce how bad it looks?

Open to suggestions gents

Efflorescence can be removed with white vinegar. Probably cheaper than the chemicals you've tried.

Sometimes it can be removed with a high pressure washer but the water might bring more to the surface. Do it on a warm, dry day (if you get those). Ron B. VK2OTC
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I had a load of it on my wall, I pressure washed it many times and it kept coming back. After a while though the amount reduced significantly until now, theres none. Just keep washing it, it does fade away to nothing. BMW i3 Electric Car
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Spraying water won’t actually help. The white efflorescence arises as the brick expresses salts from itself as a result of the chemical reaction with water. The best thing to do is brush it with a wire brush if it really bothers you, otherwise just leave it and it will eventually disappear once the salts have leached out. There are any number of ‘fixes’ out there and cowboys who will take your money, but anything they sell you will not clear it up.

If the retaining wall and steps are in contact with earth the problem will be exacerbated by the moisture in the earth being absorbed into the bricks and reacting with the brick salts. The problem will go away eventually but in the meantime cleaning with a stiff brush is probably the only way to deal with it.

Andy S wrote:

Spraying water won’t actually help.

Brick acid at your local builder supply yard

Brick acid potentially will make salts worse.

Brick acid dissolves sodium carbonate, a common cause of efflorescing salts in brickwork.

So says google anyway

AJGalaxy2012 wrote:

Andy S wrote:

Spraying water won’t actually help.

Pressure washing certainly washed the white marks away for me, even more so when I used the hot pressure wash.

I understand that, I'm treating the symptoms not the cause. I was merely removing the eyesore temporarily when it was bad and eventually flushed it all out. BMW i3 Electric Car
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Cheers all - few options here so I’ll let it dry right out first and get the missus to give it a damn good scrub with the new brush I bought her recently

I’ve got til the spring before anyone’s going to see it anyway, so failing that it’ll be clad over

It will disappear. Just salts from either the clay used to fire the brick or ground slats from poorly stored bricks. Anything wet to solve the problem will not work.

patience and the good ladies elbow are all it takes.  405 AB exec seats Baltic and Cirrus
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Is it lichen? I read it’s lichen so using a patio algae cleaner could work. But if it’s the regular sweating of salt out of new brick, as we do, then wait-do-nothing could be a significantly cheaper option. L405 P400e Autobiography (MY2020)... Silicon Silver / Espresso

we see it all the time on new house brickwork, generally caused when the bricks are laid wet, or water has been allowed to get into the cavity wall, eventually it will go away through weather action of being rained on and drying. wetting it up will only make it worse, and though brick acid will clean it, it could discolour the mortar and will only be a temporary solution as until all the salts in the brick have leached out it will keep reappearing. Personally I would just leave it alone and give it 12 months to stabilise before doing anything too drastic..

if the back of the wall is in contact with damp ground or is holding water this will definitely exacerbate the situation, as the wall is never fully drying out. There is nothing that can't be fixed with a hammer😜😜
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