The front of the Kentucky ranch house in 2020, its brick reading as one red brown range across the entrance gable and the long wing beside it
Case File 333

Darkening Blotchy Light Brick on a Kentucky Ranch Home

Light, blotchy brick was scattered across this single story house when it was new. The company that made the brick paid to have the light areas darkened in 1999. It was photographed again twenty-one years later and certified then.

Case No. 333
Structure Single story ranch house
Location Kentucky
Stained 1999
Re-photographed 2020
Elapsed 21 years, Platinum level

1999

  1. The front of the house in March 1999 under an overcast sky, pale blotches of light brick scattered through the grey brown wall between the entrance gable and the two shuttered windows Before, 1999 View this photo larger
  2. The rear of the house in March 1999, a wood deck at the left and a walk-out basement wall below, with patches of light brick across the long wall and the gable end Before, 1999 View this photo larger

What was wrong

Nothing had failed. The brick came out of the kiln in too wide a range, and the light units landed wherever the mason reached for them. The file puts it in one line: blotchy areas of light brick were scattered around the house. The company that made the brick hired the correction, not the homeowner.

What was done

Mineral stain, brushed on by hand, unit by unit. Only the light brick was touched and only in one direction, darkened to sit inside the range of the rest. The file records no full color change.

2020, twenty-one years on

  1. The front of the house in 2020 under a clear sky, the entrance gable with wreaths in its windows and the long wing beyond it in one even red brown brick, with the certification stamp in the corner After, 2020 View this photo larger

What twenty-one years prove

The 1999 frames are film prints shot on a grey day and the 2020 frame is digital in full sun, so the two sets do not share a color cast. What they share is the wall: the scattered light units are gone and nothing reads as a repair. On the certification scale that is Platinum, which starts at twenty years.

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 333, 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 333, filled in and signed View the signed form full size
Project name
Residence in Kentucky (1999)
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 brick manufacturer
Reason for project
Complaint or problem
Issues
"Blotchy areas of light brick were scattered around the house."
What was corrected
"We darked the light areas."
Storyline
"21 years ago we darkened the light colored blotchy brick, and it still looks great today."
Address
"Permission needed to release address"
Authorized
Donald A. Foster, signed, dated 2020
More Case Studies See all case studies →
The front of the home from across the lawn in 2019, its brick one red and brown range behind deep planted beds and a young tree.

Blending a Brick Repair on a Canton Michigan Home
A two-story brick home in 2019, its walls one even color under dark red shutters

Blending Mismatched Brick Colors on a Sewickley Home
The front of a single-story home in Washington, Michigan in 2019, brick and siding under a low grey roof

Lightening Dark Brick in a Washington Michigan Home

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