The church across its courtyard in 2019, the roofline running from the entrance link to the brick pier at the corner
Case File 027

Color Enhancing New Brick to Match Holy Trinity Church

An addition to this church went up in brick that did not match the older building it joined. Every new brick was color enhanced to bring it to the original, and a percentage of them went through a second time. It was photographed again twenty-one years later and certified then.

Case No. 027
Structure Church, 1998 addition
Location Michigan
Stained September 1998
Re-photographed 2019
Elapsed 21 years, Platinum level

1998

  1. The 1998 addition in even red brick meeting the older tan and multicolored brick of the church at the left, the copper clad spire above During, 1998 View this photo larger
  2. Two applicators working stain into the new brick of the addition, one from the pavement and one from a step stool, the ground taped off below them During, 1998 View this photo larger

What was wrong

The addition was finished and its brick did not agree with the building it joined. Nothing had failed and nothing was dirty. The file puts it in eight words: the new brick did not match the existing brick.

What was done

Mineral stain, brushed on by hand, unit by unit, on the new work only. The file records that all the new brick were color enhanced to closely match the older original building, and that all the brick were stained once with a percentage of them stained a second time. The older elevation was left as it was. The addition was brought to it.

2019, twenty-one years on

  1. The church across its courtyard in 2019, the addition at the right and the older elevation beyond it reading as one brick blend 2019 View this photo larger
  2. The entrance canopy in 2019 carried on two brick piers, the blend running from the piers into the wall behind the glass doors 21 Years After View this photo larger
  3. The gable end of the church in 2019, tall narrow windows set in tan, red and cream brick with a band of basement windows below 2019 View this photo larger
  4. Close view of the wall under the canopy in 2019, the units running through tan, red, brown and cream against pale mortar joints 2019 View this photo larger

What twenty-one years prove

Where the 1998 frames show two brick colors meeting at a joint, the 2019 frames show one wall. On the certification scale that is Platinum, which covers twenty years and over. The note on the form is shorter: the church still looks great in 2019. 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 027, 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 027, filled in and signed View the signed form full size
Project name
Holy Trinity (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
Other. The form's six named categories, from school or university to homeowner, are all unmarked.
Reason for project
Addition or makeover
Issue
"The new brick did not match the existing brick."
What was corrected
"All the new brick were color enhanced to closely match the older original building."
Storyline
"All the brick were stained once, and a percentage of the brick were stained a second time. The church still looks great in 2019!"
Authorized
Donald A. Foster, signed, dated 2019
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