The chimney breast rising up the corner of the house in 2019, a carved panel set into red brick
Case File 050

Matching a Rebuilt Chimney on an Iowa Historic Home

The chimney on this house was repaired, and the brick that went back up did not match the house around it. The mason who did the repair hired the staining. It was photographed again twenty-one years later and certified then.

Case No. 050
Structure Chimney on a historic home
Location Iowa
Stained 1998
Re-photographed 2019
Elapsed 21 years, Platinum level

1998

  1. The gable and chimney of the house in 1998, the stack above the roof a pale grey against the darker brick below it Before, July 1998 View this photo larger
  2. The house seen from the lawn behind mature trees, two chimney stacks standing above a steep roof View this photo larger

What was wrong

The chimney needed work, and the brick that went back up did not match the older brick around it. Nothing had failed on the rest of the house. The file puts the issue in five words: the brick did not match.

It was hired by the mason, not by the homeowner. The trade that set the brick is the one that paid to have the color reconciled.

What was done

Mineral stain, brushed into the brick by hand, unit by unit. Not a coat over the wall: pigment carried into the face of the brick itself, which is why the repaired chimney reads as masonry rather than as a finish. The file records the scope as one hundred percent of the brick, stained to a better match.

2019, twenty-one years on

  1. The chimney breast running up the corner of the house in 2019, a carved panel set into the brick above a stone offset 2019 View this photo larger
  2. The chimney stack standing clear of the tiled roof in 2019, its brick the same red as the wall it rises from 2019 View this photo larger
  3. The foot of the chimney breast in 2019, the brick one even red across the corbelled offset, with the certification stamp in the corner After, 2019 View this photo larger
  4. Close view of the chimney wall in 2019, reds and browns running unit to unit under a stone-capped offset with hostas at the foot 21 Years After View this photo larger

What twenty-one years prove

Same chimney, same carved panel, same corner of the same house. The stack that stood pale against the wall in 1998 reads as part of it in 2019. On the certification scale that is Platinum, twenty years and over, and as of 2026 the work is twenty-eight 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 050, transcribed beside the scan so it can be read on a phone and by a search engine.

The case study form for case 050, filled in and signed View the signed form full size
Project name
Chimney Work (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
The mason or contractor
Reason for project
Addition or makeover
Issue
"This chimney/restoation project where the brick did not match."
What was corrected
"We stained 100% of the brick to create a better match."
Storyline
"A wonderful older historic residence they needed to repair the chimney. We were glad to be apart of this project, and the staining has held up great in 2019!"
Authorized
Donald A. Foster, signed, dated 2019
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