Ivy – Removing From a Wall

Q: Our house is clad with synthetic stucco. We removed some climbing vines but the stucco had stuff on it after we removed the vines. It is impossible to pull it off ! Do you have any idea how we can clean the walls?

A: I used an oscillating multi-tool (click for sources) to get lots of ivy vines off a wall last summer. It was a much easier task than I thought it would be. The flat blade slid under the vine and easily severed its connection to the wall. The multi-tool worked reasonably well to scrape off the remnants of ivy holdfasts too.

I once used a steel brush for this job but it harmed the paint too much.

Remove as much as you can then paint over it.