The rear elevation of the Franklin house in 2019, its brick and limestone reading as one even wall above the pool terrace
Case File 144

Breaking Up Clustered Color on a Franklin Michigan Home

The color range on this brick was never the problem. The problem was how it clustered, the same few colors landing in patches that made the wall read blotchy. The company that made the brick paid to have it evened out by hand in 1997, and it was photographed again twenty-two years later and certified then.

Case No. 144
Structure Two-story home
Location Franklin, Michigan
Stained July 1997
Re-photographed 2019
Elapsed 22 years, Platinum level

1997

  1. The rear of the house under construction in 1997, seen across the brick terrace wall, with a stack of brick standing on the floor behind the arched window During, 1997 View this photo larger
  2. An outside corner of the terrace wall in 1997, scaffold frames leaning against it and the gabled wing above still wrapped in housewrap During, 1997 View this photo larger

What was wrong

Not the color. The file is explicit that the customer liked the overall color range; what they did not like was the areas clustered together that made the wall look blotchy. The right brick, badly distributed.

It was hired by the brick manufacturer, not the homeowner and not the mason. A brick company paid to redistribute the color on a house it had already supplied.

What was done

Mineral stain, brushed on by hand, unit by unit, and in both directions. The correction on the form is darkening and lightening brick for a better and more consistent blend, so units were taken down and brought up until no patch read as a patch.

2019, twenty-two years on

  1. The rear of the house across the lawn in 2019, its brick reading as one even range from the terrace wall up to the gables 2019 View this photo larger
  2. The brick terrace and the arched openings beneath the stone balustrade in 2019, the color varying from unit to unit with no patches 22 Years After View this photo larger
  3. A close view of the terrace retaining wall in 2019, its brick mixed red and brown against blocks of limestone 2019 View this photo larger
  4. The front of the house in 2019, a round bay under a conical shingled roof set between a limestone gable and brick walls 2019 View this photo larger
  5. The front entry porch under a curved roof in 2019, the brick around it an even mix of reds and browns 2019 View this photo larger
  6. The brick garden stair and its iron railing running up the face of the terrace wall in 2019 2019 View this photo larger
  7. The bay window wing and its chimney stacks seen from above the terrace in 2019, with the pool and garden below 2019 View this photo larger

What twenty-two years prove

Same house, same rear elevation, and a wall whose colors still sit apart from each other rather than in clumps. 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 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 144, 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 144, filled in and signed View the signed form full size
Project name
Franklin, MI Residence (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 brick manufacturer
Reason for project
Complaint or problem
Issue
"The wall needed a better blend."
What was corrected
"We darkened and lightened brick for a better and more consistent blend."
Storyline
"The customer liked the overall color range, but did not like the areas clustered together that made the wall look blotchy."
Authorized
Donald A. Foster, signed, dated 2019
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