The housing block in 2019, its brick reading as one buff range beneath the siding above
Case File 038

Staining Window Fill Ins on an East St Louis Housing Block

Windows were filled in on this two-story housing block and the replacement brick and mortar did not match the wall around them. The mason's contractor called for stain after the fact. It was photographed again twenty-one years later and certified then.

Case No. 038
Structure Two-story housing block
Location East St. Louis, Illinois
Stained August 1998
Re-photographed 2019
Elapsed 21 years, Platinum level

1998

  1. A brick wall beside a dark service door in 1998, blocks of grey filled-in brick and mortar standing against the warm orange brick around them Before, 1998 View this photo larger
  2. An applicator in a Masonry Cosmetics shirt working a filled-in section of the wall by hand, air conditioning units standing on the ground either side of him During, 1998 View this photo larger

What was wrong

Windows were taken out and bricked up. The file names the issue in five words: window fill ins and repairs. The brick and mortar that went into those openings did not match the wall they were set into, which is what the 1998 frames show as grey panels in a warm orange elevation.

The mason's contractor hired it, not the owner and not the brick company. The file is plain that stain was called in after the fact, once the fill-ins were already built.

What was done

Mineral stain, brushed on by hand, unit by unit. The line in the file is stain the off colored brick and mortar, so the joints were worked as well as the brick faces. The fill-ins were brought into the range of the wall around them rather than the wall being given a new color.

2019, twenty-one years on

  1. The two-story block in 2019, siding over brick, the brick holding one buff range from the ground to the eaves with a vine growing up the downspout 2019 View this photo larger
  2. A rear elevation in 2019 with a screen door, a barbecue grill on the grass and an equipment cage on the concrete, the brick one buff range across the whole wall 2019 View this photo larger
  3. Close view of the wall in 2019 beside a downspout, the brick faces reading as one buff range course by course 21 Years After View this photo larger
  4. A long run of wall in 2019 next to a service door, the brick even from end to end, the frame carrying the Brickman Certified stamp After, 2019 View this photo larger

What twenty-one years prove

The fill-ins are still inside the range of the wall they were set into. On the certification scale that is Platinum, the band that runs twenty years and over. The file does not oversell it: the storyline says the contractor needed to find a better brick to start with, and that a closer match in size, texture and color would have made the result better still. As of 2026 the work is twenty-eight 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 038, 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 038, filled in and signed View the signed form full size
Project name
East STL Housing (1998)
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
Mason or contractor
Reason for project
Other
Issue
"Window fill ins and repairs."
What was corrected
"MCI was called in after the fact to stain the off colored brick and mortar."
Storyline
"On this project, the contractor needed to find a better brick to start with. If they could've gotten a closer match in size, texture, and color, we could have been even more successful!"
Authorized
Donald A. Foster, signed, dated 2019
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