The front of a two-story brick house in 2019, its arched entry and gable reading as one buff and tan range above mature planting
Case File 127

Coloring Fewer Than Twenty Dark Brick on a Chelsea Home

Fewer than twenty dark bricks in the wall of this two-story house bothered the owner. The company that made the brick paid to have those units colored to match, and nothing else on the house was touched. It was photographed again seventeen years later and certified then.

Case No. 127
Structure Two-story home, gabled wings
Location Chelsea, Michigan
Stained May 2002
Re-photographed 2019
Elapsed 17 years, Gold level

2002

  1. The gable end of the house in 2002 with an extension ladder leaning against it, a scattered band of dark bricks running across the pale wall below the round louvred vent During, 2002 View this photo larger
  2. The same gable end from the front in 2002 once the work was done, the wall holding one pale buff range from the ridge down past the round vent to the window heads After, 2002 View this photo larger

What was wrong

Nothing had failed and nothing was dirty. A handful of dark units had come through in the delivery and landed in a wall where the owner could see them. The file counts them rather than describing them: there were under 20 dark brick that bothered the homeowner.

It was hired by the brick manufacturer, not the family and not the builder. The company that supplied the brick paid for staining rather than cutting a few units out of a finished wall.

What was done

Mineral stain, brushed on by hand, on fewer than twenty bricks. The correction on the form runs to one line: we colored less than 20 dark brick on the house. Everything else was left exactly as it was laid, and the file is direct about that limit. We were not hired to fix everything on the house.

2019, seventeen years on

  1. The house from its front lawn in 2019, the tall arched brick entry and the gabled wing beside it reading as one buff and tan range above clipped planting and a stone bench After, 2019 View this photo larger
  2. The front of the house close up in 2019, the arched brick entry running two storeys between sided gables with a leaded glass door beneath it 2019 View this photo larger
  3. A side wall of the house in 2019 seen at a low angle, projecting courses of tan and gold brick running across a grey and buff field toward the garage 2019 View this photo larger
  4. An outside corner of the house in 2019 with a downspout running down it, the brick holding one buff and tan range across both faces below the siding 2019 View this photo larger
  5. The foot of the gable wall in 2019 above a clipped shrub line and the lawn, the brick reading as one even buff range, with the Brickman certified stamp in the corner of the frame 17 Years After View this photo larger

What seventeen years prove

Same house, same gable, and the units that were colored still sit in the range around them. On the certification scale that is Gold, which covers fifteen years and over. As of 2026 the work is twenty-four years old, and the 2019 certification is the most recent record on it.

The file is candid about the size of the job. This is one of the smallest projects we have worked on, it says, but it was big enough to bother the owner.

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 127, 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 127, filled in and signed View the signed form full size
Project name
Chelsea, Michigan Residence (2002)
Level
Gold. 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
Brick manufacturer
Reason for project
Complaint or problem
Issues
"There were under 20 dark brick that bothered the homeowner."
What was corrected
"We colored less than 20 dark brick on the house."
Storyline
"Some projects actually are pretty small. This is one of the smallest projects we have worked on, but it was big enough to bother the owner. We were not hired to fix everything on the house. 17 years later, the few brick we did stain are still stained!"
Address
"Permission needed to release address"
Authorized
Donald A. Foster, signed, dated 2019
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Every job we stain enters the same discipline: photographed, revisited, re-photographed.

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