Efflorescence (from Brandon)

Hello everyone -


Last meeting someone asked for a more detailed explanation of the Efflorescence located on the outside of the Bgard:

For everyone who doesn't know what we're talking about, the white powder you see at the top of our building's exterior facade is efflorescence. The brick, stone, block, mortar etc. contain water soluble salts that are the source of the white deposits. It's not a pretty sight, but it's quite common on new buildings, and some cases cannot be avoided.

Anyway, these trapped salts in the materials (in this case brick) are set into motion when water enters masonry. The water dissolves the salts and carries them through the masonry towards the surface. Sunlight and wind draw the water to the surface but as the water evaporates, the salts are left behind.


The salts contained in the brick, mortar, stone, concrete block eventually exhaust themselves and the white mineral deposits simply go away. It's very hard to predict how long this will take, although I haven't heard of many cases lasting more than two years. some cases take as little as weeks to disappear. The fact that we are in an urban environment actually helps, as acid rain removes surface salt deposits faster than less acidic rains found in more rural areas.

If this efflorescence does not stop after an excessive period of time, we'll look into cleaning and sealing the brick to prevent it from coming back again. Yes, we could do this now, but this process can be quite costly and would not guarantee it from reappearing since the building is so new. Our best bet is to wait it out and then manually remove it after it weakens over time if it doesn't go away on it's own.

Also, the white powdery substance on the roof pavers is also efflorescence. Again, this will go away with time and probably a bit faster as people walk on these pavers more frequently.


If anyone has any additional questions or concerns please don't hesitate to contact me.

Brandon