How to seal a mud brick floor?

[billyjoe]

I have a mud brick floor which was laid down in 1992. It was coated with one coat of linseed oil and turps 50-50, then one coat of pure linseed oil, and finally two coats of Solpah oil which was produced by Taulbmans for applying to external house bricks. The Solpah oil  was waterproof, hardware and transparent and was aimed. I assume at giving protection to external house bricks. Unfortunately, Taulbmans have stopped producing Solpah oil and I unfortunately have not been able to find a comparable alternative. It was a very good product for applying as a final coat to the mud brick floor.

 

[JacobZ]

Hi @billyjoe,

A warm welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community and thank you for your question about sealing a mud brick floor.

I can't say I'm particularly aware of solpah oil and it is hard to find information on the product.

There are masonry sealers such as this Crommelin 4L Water Based Brick And Render Sealer which could be an option, but I'm not certain how well they would work over an existing coating that I can't find a lot of information on.

If you were able to remove the existing coating, there are also masonry paints that could work.

Allow me to tag @Noyade, @Jewelleryrescue and @Nailbag to see if they have any thoughts.

Jacob

[MitchellMc]

Hi @billyjoe,

I've done a bit more investigating and it's a difficult situation. Most sealers, including those available from Crommelins are designed to go over a porous surface. Solpah was an enamel coating and as such it is not porous. Even if it was entirely removed, the Crommelins technical team still doesn't advise applying their products over the mud brick, especially when it was coated with linseed oil.

I suspect your best option would be to enquire with industrial coating specialists to see if there is a hard coating that could be applied over the non-porous surface.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Mitchell

[Nailbag]

Hi @billyjoe 

a mate of mine has a small mud-brick hut he rebuilt in the Victorian high-country. I gave him a call and this is the product he recently used when updating the outer coating.

Nailbag