Do I need to prime my dark brick exterior before painting the color?

Yes the red will bleed through.Make sure you use the correct primer and paint for outdoor bricks

I used a grey masonry stain that I purchased from Sherwin Williams. It only required one coat to cover the dark orange bricks on my house.

Make sure to power wash first. If not, when the dirt flakes off, you are left with exposed brick. That's what I did and my stone (I didn't have brick) looks great!

Use solid stain instead of paint. Paint sits on the surface of the brick and will eventually flake off. Stain penetrates into the brick. We had ugly orange brick that we stained a light tan. It did take two coats of stain, but 8 years later the stain is still in perfect shape in a climate that gets up to 100 degrees in summer and 10 degrees in winter.

I just read an article that said we should not paint brick. The reason stated was that brick needs to breathe and that paint seals the brick and prevents it from breathing. I would first verify what this article is stating.

Thank you 😁

Thank you Mary 😁