The Comstock Park branch library in 2019, a low run of tan brick under a shingled gable with a stone cornerstone beside the entrance
Case File 033

Coloring Repair Brick at the Comstock Park Branch Library

Repairs to this branch library were made in brick that did not match the wall around them. The new units were colored to close the gap rather than pulled back out. It was photographed again twenty-two years later and certified then.

Case No. 033
Structure Branch library
Location Comstock Park, Michigan
Stained 1997
Re-photographed 2019
Elapsed 22 years, Platinum level

1997

  1. The branch library from its parking lot in 1997, the orange brick front interrupted by taller panels of a pinker, greyer brick between the windows and by one dark rectangular patch Before, July 1997 View this photo larger
  2. The library entrance doors set under a gable in October 1997, the brick running across the wall on both sides of them as one even orange October 1997 View this photo larger

What was wrong

The building had been repaired, and the brick picked for the repairs did not agree with what was already up. The file puts it in one line: the brick they chose to use did not create a close enough match. Nothing had failed. The wall read as two brick colors.

What was done

Mineral stain, brushed on by hand. Only the repairs and the fill-ins were touched, not the wall around them: colored the repairs and fill ins for a closer match. The restoration company had already found the closest brick it could buy, and stain closed what was left.

2019, twenty-two years on

  1. The library in 2019 from the lawn beside the flagpole, the gable end, the stone cornerstone and the entrance all in one continuous run of brick 2019 View this photo larger
  2. The long side wall of the library in tree shade in 2019, the brick running unbroken from the grass line to the eaves past two windows 22 Years After View this photo larger
  3. The gable end of the library square on in 2019, a ribbon window over plain brick with a carved 1952 fire department cornerstone set into the wall at the right 2019 View this photo larger
  4. The library frontage in 2019 looking past the cornerstone along the wall to the glass entrance door and the branch name sign 2019 View this photo larger

What twenty-two years prove

Same building, same repairs, and no seam left where the new brick went in. On the certification scale that is Platinum, which covers twenty years and over. The line in the file is that the project looks just like we left it 22 years ago. As of 2026 the work is twenty-nine 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 033, 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 033, filled in and signed View the signed form full size
Project name
Comstock Library (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 or contractor
Reason for project
Other
Issue
"The building underwent repairs and the brick they chose to use did not create a close enough match."
What was corrected
"Colored the repairs and fill ins for a closer match."
Storyline
"We were an after thought on this project. The restoration company found the best match availible, and hired MCI to get a closer match! The project looks just like we left it 22 years ago!"
Authorized
Donald A. Foster, signed, dated 2019
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