The Canton high rise in 2019, its brick reading as one even red-brown across every storey
Case File 082

Darkening the Light Run on a Canton High Rise

The brick for this building arrived in two runs and one of them was lighter. The company that made the brick paid to have the light units darkened rather than have the wall taken down. It was photographed again twenty-five years later and certified then.

Case No. 082
Structure High rise
Location Canton, Michigan
Stained 1994
Re-photographed July 2019
Elapsed 25 years, Platinum level

1994

  1. The high rise under construction in 1994, its brick a pale buff with orange banding and the window openings still boarded Before, 1994 View this photo larger
  2. The same building with its windows in, the buff brick showing lighter stripes and blotchy patches where the two runs meet During, 1994 View this photo larger

What was wrong

One order, two runs of brick, and one run lighter than the other. Nothing had failed and nothing was dirty. The wall went up striped, with blotchy areas where the two runs met.

It was hired by the brick manufacturer, not the owner and not the mason. A brick company decided the color of a finished high rise it had supplied was its own problem, and paid for staining over tear-out.

What was done

Mineral stain, brushed on by hand. Not one color over the whole building: only the light run was taken down to meet the darker one, which is why the banding and the darker headers still read on the finished wall. The phrase in the file is darkened the light brick.

2019, twenty-five years on

  1. The full elevation in 2019, the brick reading as one even red-brown from the parking area to the roofline 2019 View this photo larger
  2. The entrance canopy in 2019 below an even red-brown brick elevation, with a certification stamp in the corner of the photograph 25 Years After View this photo larger
  3. An outside corner of the high rise in 2019 against a clear sky, both faces carrying the same brick color 2019 View this photo larger
  4. Brick at close range in 2019, reds, browns and near-blacks reading as one blend with an orange accent course running across the corner 2019 View this photo larger
  5. A corner of the building in 2019 behind mature planting, the brick even across the wall above the shrubs 2019 View this photo larger

What twenty-five years prove

Same building, same brick, and a wall that reads as one color. On the certification scale that is Platinum, which covers twenty years and over and is the top of the scale. The six 2019 frames were taken between 12:18 and 12:21 on 20 July 2019, one walk around the building on the day the form was signed. As of 2026 the work is thirty-two years old, and the 2019 certification is the most recent record on it.

The signed file

Every certified job gets the same form, signed on the day someone goes back to the building. This is the one for case 082, transcribed beside the scan so it can be read on a phone and by a search engine.

Scan of the case study form for case 082, filled in and signed View the signed form full size
Project name
Canton High Rise (1994)
Level
Platinum. The scale runs Bronze at seven to nine years, Silver at ten and over, Gold at fifteen and over, Platinum at twenty and over.
Hired by
The brick manufacturer
Reason for project
Complaint or problem
Issue
"Brick MFG had to use two different runs of brick on this project and one run was lighter than the other."
What was corrected
"Darkened the light brick."
Storyline
"Stained some of the light stripes and blotchy areas on the building due to the color difference of the two different runs of brick."
Authorized
Donald A. Foster, signed, dated 20 July 2019
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