The brick ground floor of the Farmington Hills house in 2019, tan brick one even range from the bay window past the entrance to the garage
Case File 134

Lightening the Lower Half of a Farmington Hills Home

The brick on this two-story house went up off color: the bottom half of the house ran darker than the top. The brick manufacturer, not the homeowner, hired the correction in 1998. It was photographed again twenty-one years later and certified Platinum, the top of the scale.

Case No. 134
Structure Two-story house
Location Farmington Hills, Michigan
Stained 1998
Re-photographed 2019
Elapsed 21 years, Platinum level

1998

  1. The porch wall in 1998 before the work, the brick beside two cedar posts running darker through the lower courses and the soldier band, with a camera date of 8/28/98 in the corner Before, 1998 View this photo larger
  2. The same porch wall in 1998 after the work, the lower courses lightened to the range of the courses above them After, 1998 View this photo larger
  3. The gable end wall in 1998 before the work, dark units concentrated in the bottom third of the wall and in the soldier course above the foundation Before, 1998 View this photo larger
  4. The same gable end wall in 1998 after the work, the bottom courses reading with the rest of the wall under the gray green fascia After, 1998 View this photo larger

What was wrong

Off-colored brick throughout the house, in the file's words. The dark units sat in the lower courses, and the note on the evidence page says it plainly: note how dark the bottom bricks are, and how out of place they look. The manufacturer who made the brick paid for the fix, not the homeowner.

What was done

Some areas on the bottom of the house were lightened to match the top half. Each brick was stained individually, and the file's own words for the material are a translucent, absorbed stain, proven to not fade, blister, crack, peel or flake.

2019, twenty-one years on

  1. The front of the two-story house in 2019, tan brick on the ground floor under gray green siding and a dark roof, the brick one even range from the bay window past the entrance to the garage 2019 View this photo larger
  2. The brick beside a window and a downspout in 2019, tan and pink units under a rowlock sill with gray green siding above After, 2019 View this photo larger
  3. An outside corner of the house in 2019 at a white downspout, the tan brick one range on both faces, a Japanese maple at the left edge 21 Years After View this photo larger

What twenty-one years prove

The lower courses still read with the upper ones. Twenty-one years is Platinum on the certification scale, which starts at twenty. The form's closing line belongs to the homeowners: they will never have to worry about their brick peeling, cracking or blistering. As of 2026 the work is twenty-eight years old, and the 2019 photographs are the most recent record on it.

The signed file

Every certified job gets the same form, filled in after someone goes back to the building. This is the one for case 134, transcribed beside the form so it can be read on a phone and by a search engine.

The case study form for case 134, filled in and signed, rendered from the case booklet View the signed form full size
Project name
Residence, Farmington Hills, MI (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
The brick manufacturer
Cause
Complaint or problem
Background
"Off-colored brick throughout the house."
Actions taken
"We lightened some areas on the bottom of the house to match the top half."
Detail of events
"21 years later and the house is still looking great. The homeowners are thrilled that they'll never have to worry about their brick peeling, cracking or blistering!"
Authorized
Donald A. Foster, signed, dated 2020
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