A brick wall beside a front door in 2019, a lamp above and a shuttered window to the right, the lower courses running lighter than the dark brick above
Case File 022

Adding Light Brick to the Range Beside a Front Door

The brick to the right of this front door needed some light units added to the range. The homeowner hired the work directly. It was photographed again sixteen years later and certified then.

Case No. 022
Structure Two-story home, brick and siding
Location Indianapolis, Indiana
Stained July 2003
Re-photographed 2019
Elapsed 16 years, Gold level

2003

  1. The wall beside the front door in 2003, a single window in a field of red and dark brown brick with the beds dug out below it Before, 2003 View this photo larger
  2. The front door and the same window three days later in 2003, pale tan units now running through the brick to the right of the door and under the sill After, 2003 View this photo larger

What was wrong

The file is plain about the size of it. The brick to the right of the front door and in front of the window needed some light units added to the range. Nothing had failed and nothing was dirty. The Hired by line reads homeowner, so this one was paid for by the people living in the house.

What was done

Mineral stain, brushed on by hand, unit by unit. Not one color over the wall: selected brick were lightened so that stretch of the elevation carried light units the way the rest of it did. The line in the file is six words: we added lights to the range.

2019, sixteen years on

  1. The same wall in 2019 with shutters now on the window, the lighter units still running through the brick from the door across to the porch 16 Years After View this photo larger
  2. The brick between the storm door and the window in 2019, the lighter courses reaching from the door frame across to the shutter 2019 View this photo larger
  3. Close view of the coursing in 2019, pale tan units set at intervals among the dark brown brick between cream mortar joints 2019 View this photo larger

What sixteen years prove

The mark on the file is Gold, which covers fifteen years and over on the certification scale. The sentence the file wants read is its own: 16 years later, the brick we lightened are still light. 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 022, transcribed beside the scan so it can be read on a phone and by a search engine.

The case study form for case 022, filled in and signed View the signed form full size
Project name
House in Indianapolis (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
Homeowner
Reason for project
Other. The form's five named reasons are all left blank and the X is against Other, with no words written beside it.
Issues
"They needed some light brick added to the range to the right of the door and in front of the window."
What was corrected
"We added lights to the range."
Storyline
"A small job, but nonetheless, it was important to the homeowner, so it was important to us. 16 years later, the brick we lightened are still light. And yes, we can lighten brick!"
Address
"Permission needed to release address"
Authorized
Donald A. Foster, signed, dated 2019
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Every job we stain enters the same discipline: photographed, revisited, re-photographed.

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