The corner of the Illinois office in 2019, its dark accent brick running as one even charcoal under a metal canopy
Case File 056

Correcting Off Color Headers on an Illinois Office

The darker brick set around both entrances of this office went up off color. The company that made the brick hired the correction, not the owner and not the mason. It was photographed again sixteen years later and certified then.

Case No. 056
Structure Office building
Location Illinois
Stained 2003
Re-photographed 2019
Elapsed 16 years, Gold level

2003

  1. A glazed entrance under a flat canopy in 2003, the brick piers and the band above it a pale blotchy grey beside red field brick Before, 2003 View this photo larger
  2. The brick pier at the second entrance in 2003, one face washed out to near cream and the other mottled grey and tan Before, 2003 View this photo larger

What was wrong

The building has two entrances, and the darker brick set around both of them did not come out the color it was meant to be. Nothing had failed and nothing was dirty. The file puts it in five words: the “headers” were off color.

It was hired by the brick manufacturer. A brick company treated the color of a finished building it had supplied as its own problem, and paid for staining.

What was done

Mineral stain, brushed on by hand, unit by unit. The file is exact about the scope: most of the “headers” on both entrances, and nothing else. The red field brick around them was never in the job, which is why it still reads as the red it was laid in.

2019, sixteen years on

  1. The second entrance and its corner pier in 2019, the dark brick one even charcoal from the ground to the canopy, with red field brick returning down the elevation behind it 2019 View this photo larger
  2. The same glazed entrance in 2019, its brick piers and base course an even dark charcoal against the red field brick, with the certification stamp at the corner After, 2019 View this photo larger
  3. The same brick pier close up in 2019, both faces one dark charcoal with pale mortar joints, and the red brick wall beyond it left as laid 2019 View this photo larger

What sixteen years prove

Same two entrances, same dark brick, and one color across it. On the certification scale that is Gold, which covers fifteen years and over. As of 2026 the work is twenty-three 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 056, 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 056, filled in and signed View the signed form full size
Project name
Office Building in Illinois (2003)
Level
Gold. 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 ‘headers’ were off color.”
What was corrected
“We were hired to only stain most of the ‘headers’ on both entrances to the building.”
Storyline
“16 years later, the stain has held up well!”
Address
Left blank, printed “Permission needed to release address”
Authorized
Donald A. Foster, signed, dated 2019
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