The front entry of the Carmel house in 2019, the brick either side of the door reading as one even red and brown range
Case File 306

Repairing Pressure Washer Damage on a Carmel Home

A pressure washer cut into the face of the brick on this house while it was still being built. The damaged spots were color enhanced by hand in 1997, before anyone moved in. It was photographed again twenty-two years later and certified then.

Case No. 306
Structure Two-story home
Location Carmel, Indiana
Stained 1997
Re-photographed 2019
Elapsed 22 years, Platinum level

1997

  1. Close view of the brick in 1997, pale scoured patches across the faces where a pressure washer wand cut into them Before, 1997 View this photo larger
  2. Two applicators working the brick of the house in 1997 while it was still under construction, the wall running an uneven red and tan During, 1997 View this photo larger

What was wrong

A pressure washer took the fired face off parts of the brick. The file puts it in four words: there was powerwash damage. Nothing was dirty and nothing had failed. The wand had left pale scoured patches through a wall that was otherwise brand new, and the 1997 frames show the house still unfinished around them.

It was hired by the mason contractor rather than by the homeowner.

What was done

Mineral stain, brushed on by hand, spot by spot. The file is straight about the limit of it: a stain does not replace texture. What it can do is put the scoured patches back into the color of the brick around them, which is the eight words the file uses, we color enhanced all of the damaged areas.

2019, twenty-two years on

  1. The arched front entry of the house in 2019, the brick running one even red and brown range from the beds up to the gable 2019 View this photo larger
  2. The entry gable seen along the front wall in 2019, the near brick and the far brick holding the same red and brown range 22 Years After View this photo larger
  3. The gable end of the house in 2019 beside a lamp post, its brick evenly colored from the beds up to the eaves 2019 View this photo larger

What twenty-two years prove

Same house, same wall, and the enhanced spots still sitting in the color of the brick around them. On the certification scale that is Platinum, which covers twenty years and over. As of 2026 the work is twenty-nine years old, and the 2019 certification is the most recent record on it.

The sentence the file wants read is its own: pressure washers can be very damaging to brick.

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 306, 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 306, filled in and signed View the signed form full size
Project name
Wand Damage Carmel, IN (1997)
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 mason contractor
Reason for project
Complaint or problem
Issue
"There was powerwash damage."
What was corrected
"We color enhanced all of the damaged areas."
Storyline
"Pressure washers can be very damaging to brick and a Proven Masonry Stain doesn't replace texture but aesthetically we can color enhance the spots that were damaged."
Authorized
Donald A. Foster, signed, dated 2019
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