1978 brick is vastly different than 1878 brick. Yours is probably a high fire dense brick where sandblasting will take off 1:16” at best. You won’t know until you test it.

I'd be concerned about the aggressive nature of the sandblasting process. You might consider chemical removal of the paint, soda blasting, and dry ice blasting as alternatives before deciding which is best.

Soda blasting or walnut shell blasting will be the far better options.

I'll have to look up those other options. I had never heard of soda, walnut, or dry ice blasting. I wonder if it's done out here in Phoenix. So far in a quick search, I'm not finding anyone. I'm glad to hear one opinion about 1978 brick being stronger than 1878 brick. good point.

I just had a sandblasting guy come out for a bid and he said those 3 options wouldn't work. He said, especially for the stucco'ed part of my house. He said he could come back to do an area to give me a better bid. Good thing is he said that the brick I have has a bit of red in it and that's rare, but he also said that somexs on a job they find that different brick was used at whatever point on the build or other problems are discovered and somexs people spend a bunch of money to realize they don't like the outcome. So, that's another risk I'll have to think about.

Re the integrity of the brick after time, he said he's been doing this many years and there's a neighborhood of houses that he did 15 years ago and they still look like day 1. He said most people don't seal the homes. I'm worried abour the bottom part of the house where the foundation is. We've already had water damage there to the rebar, but if we did it correctly, it didn't end up being a big deal, I suppose. Lots to think about, or am I overthinking it?

thx much!

Are you planning to sandblast stucco?

Why does stucco need sand blasting? Stucco, can be painted, and most of the time it is. Find out from neighbors that lived there for a long time, about the condition of the brick, and it being all alike, before you do anything. He is right, most do not seal brick homes, because, brick needs to breath. Painting with regular paint, and sealing both keep it from breathing, and you could end up with a lot of brick spalling etc.

at this point I'm trying to decide if I should sandblast the stucco off of my house. the front is stucco and I want to see the block underneath. I called it brick and was corrected that it's cinder block. I think the stucco job was a solid job done 45 years ago so my worry is if it'll be hard to get off. 1st guy said he could get it off but could give me a better quote of how much after doing a sample. said probably $4500/$5k for my 1600 sq ft house. 2d guy said he wouldn't touch the stucco'ed front and would only do the 3 other walls for $5k and mostly works with commerical businesses so recommended I ask another smaller company who did a nice job on my friend's house. I can't get a hold of them, yet. I can look again for dry ice blast and the such, but would I still be running into the same problems with trying to sandblast stucco off of the house?

btw, my house is white. I have had a couple of windows installed an enlarged and I understand I'll also be able to see all of those imperfections...

It's more than likely concrete, not cinder block.

And once you remove the stucco, what is to replace it? Or is it to remain unadorned block like classic barrios.

Worthy, yes, here's an article that talks about sandblasting-has some pics of before and after. https://modernphoenix.net/landscape/sandblastingadvice.htm