The house from the sidewalk in 2019, its brick centre bay reading as one even blend beside white siding
Case File 248

Adding Dark Units to a Flat Range on an Ohio Home

The brick on this two-story house went up without enough dark units in the range, so the blend read flat. The company that made the brick paid to have darks added rather than have the wall taken down. It was photographed again twenty-one years later and certified then.

Case No. 248
Structure Two-story house
Location Ohio
Stained October 1998
Re-photographed 2019
Elapsed 21 years, Platinum level

1998

  1. The two-story arched window bay in 1998, the brick around it reading mostly light red, with a camera date of 10 3 98 burned into the lower right of the frame During, 1998 View this photo larger
  2. An applicator standing on the front porch in 1998, working stain into the brick corner by hand with ladders leaning on the siding beside him During, 1998 View this photo larger

What was wrong

The brick arrived short of darks. Nothing had failed and nothing was dirty; the wall simply read flatter than the blend it was meant to be. The file puts it in eight words: there were not enough darks in the range.

It was hired by the brick manufacturer, not the owner and not the mason. A brick company decided the color of a finished house it had supplied was its own problem, and paid for staining over tear-out.

What was done

Mineral stain, brushed on by hand, unit by unit. Not one color across the whole wall: darks were put back into the range until the elevation read as the blend it was mixed to be. The phrase in the file is we added some darks to even out the range.

2019, twenty-one years on

  1. The house seen from the sidewalk in 2019, the brick centre bay reading as one even red, tan and grey blend beside white siding 2019 View this photo larger
  2. The front entrance in 2019 below the two-story arched window, the brick around it an even mix of red, tan and grey units 21 Years After View this photo larger
  3. An outside corner of the brick bay in 2019 seen from below, running up to the eaves beside the arched window 2019 View this photo larger
  4. Close view of the brick corner beside the entry in 2019, dark grey and brown units set through the red across both faces 2019 View this photo larger

What twenty-one years prove

Same house, same corner, and a blend that still carries its darks. On the certification scale that is Platinum, which covers twenty years and over. 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 248, 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 248, filled in and signed View the signed form full size
Project name
Lynnes Cove Residence (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 brick manufacturer
Reason for project
Complaint or problem
Issue
"There were not enough darks in the range."
What was corrected
"We added some darks to even out the range."
Storyline
"This job was not very big but it was significant because it was stained 21 years ago and is still holding up today."
Authorized
Donald A. Foster, signed, dated 2019
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