The front of a single-story grocery store in 2019, one red brick wall running the length of the frame behind a flagpole
Case File 036

Color Enhancing Addition Brick on a Grand Rapids Grocery

The brick for an addition arrived as close as the dealer could get it and still did not match the store it was going onto. The business paid to have the new units stained to the old wall rather than pulled off. It was photographed again twenty-two years later and certified then.

Case No. 036
Structure Single-story grocery store
Location Grand Rapids, Michigan
Stained 1997
Re-photographed 2019
Elapsed 22 years, Platinum level

1997 and 1998

  1. A single-story wing under construction in 1997, its window openings boarded with sheathing and orange red brick running the length of the wall Before, 1997 View this photo larger
  2. The store from across its parking lot in 1998, a Forest Hills Foods pylon sign at the kerb and one run of red brick along the front under a green roof 1998 View this photo larger

What was wrong

The store put on an addition and the addition had to be brick. The file records what happened next in one line: the dealer found the closest brick he could in size, texture and color, and it just wasn't close enough.

The business paid for the correction itself. Not the dealer who supplied the brick, and not the mason who laid it.

What was done

Mineral stain, brushed on by hand, unit by unit, on the new brick only. The phrase in the file is that the brick was color enhanced for a closer match, which is the new work brought to the old wall rather than one color run over both.

2019, twenty-two years on

  1. The front of the store in 2019, one red brick wall running past a pharmacy sign and a coffee counter sign to a line of propane cages 2019 View this photo larger
  2. A side wall of the store in 2019, four glass block windows set in red brick under a band of upright units, above an empty parking bay 2019 View this photo larger
  3. Close view of an inside corner in 2019, red and orange brick units reading as one range up to a gas riser and a yellow bollard 2019 View this photo larger
  4. An outside corner of the store in 2019, red brick reading as one range across both faces with a yellow bollard at the base 22 Years After View this photo larger

What twenty-two years prove

One range of red across the corner, the side wall and the front. On the certification scale that is Platinum, which covers twenty years and over. The file adds a detail that matters more than the level: two more additions have gone on since, so the match had to hold while the building kept changing around it. As of 2026 the work is twenty-nine years old.

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 036, 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 036, filled in and signed View the signed form full size
Project name
Forrest Hills (1997). Spelled with two r's on the form; the store's own sign in the 1998 photograph reads Forest Hills Foods.
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
Business or corporation
Reason for project
Addition or makeover
Issue
"Dealer found the closest brick he could in size, texture, and color. It just wasn't close enough."
What was corrected
"We color enhanced the brick for a closer match."
Storyline
"Stained additions to closely match original brick. Still looks great today. (They have put on two more additions over the years.)"
Address
"Permission needed to release address"
Authorized
Donald A. Foster, signed, dated 07/01/2019
More Case Studies See all case studies →
A brick high rise in Canton, Michigan, its two runs of brick reading as one

Darkening the Light Run on a Canton High Rise
The church wing and its entrance seen across the lawn in 2019, the wing and the older walls behind it reading as one brick

Blending a New Wing Into St Thomas Parish Church
The hospital from the street in 2019, two storeys of brick over a cream precast screen wall, the brick holding one red range across both levels.

Spot Color Correcting Brick Around a Michigan Hospital

Your Project, Documented for Decades

Every job we stain enters the same discipline: photographed, revisited, re-photographed.

Request a Quote
Call Us Request a Quote