The entrance tower of the Merrillville retail building in 2019, its flashed red brown brick running under a white canopy into the wall beside it
Case File 015

Adding Flash to Plain Brick on a Merrillville Storefront

Two runs of brick met on one building and did not match: a plain sand molded unit beside a flashed blend with several colors on a single brick. In 1995 the plain brick was stained to carry the blend across. Photographed again in 2019 and certified Platinum, twenty-four years on.

Case No. 015
Structure Retail building
Location Merrillville, Indiana
Stained 1995
Re-photographed 2019
Elapsed 24 years, Platinum level

1995

  1. The entrance tower in 1995 before staining, plain orange tan brick around a blank stucco panel and a white canopy, beside a wall of darker flashed brick to the left Before, 1995 View this photo larger
  2. The entrance tower in 1995 after staining, its brick now carrying the same flashed blend as the wall to the right, under a deep blue sky After, 1995 View this photo larger
  3. The entrance canopy and doorway in 1995 before staining, the plain orange brick of the piers meeting the darker flashed blend of the wall to the right Before, 1995 View this photo larger
  4. The entrance canopy in 1995 after staining, a man on an extension ladder at the left, the brick of the doorway now carrying the same flashed blend as the wall to the right After, 1995 View this photo larger

What was wrong

The addition to the building did not match. That is the whole of the file's background line. One run was a plain sand molded brick in a single orange tan; the other a flashed blend, with cross sets and units carrying two or three colors each. The business that owned the building hired the match.

What was done

Mineral stain on the plain brick. The file records it as many colors and enhancements: the flash added unit by unit, some brick stained in part rather than whole, so a single brick reads in several colors the way the blend beside it does.

2019, twenty-four years on

  1. The entrance tower and the wall beside it in 2019, one flashed red brown blend across both, with a blank stucco panel, a white canopy and a no parking sign on the pier After, 2019 View this photo larger
  2. A close-up of the plain sand molded brick in 1995, every unit the same orange with pale grey joints, a sliver of the darker flashed blend at the left edge Before, 1995 View this photo larger
  3. A close-up of the stained brick in 2019, red, brown and grey units with pale joints, several colors on a single brick After, 2019 View this photo larger

What twenty-four years prove

The tower and the wall beside it read as one blend in 2019, and the file's own note is that you cannot tell the stained brick from the unstained. On the certification scale that is Platinum, twenty years and over, signed in 2020. As of 2026 the work is thirty-one years old.

The signed file

Every certified job gets the same form, signed when someone goes back to the building. This is the one for case 015, transcribed beside it so a phone and a search engine can read it.

The case study form for case 015, filled in and signed, rendered from the case booklet View the signed form full size
Project name
Business, Merrillville, IN (1995)
Level
Platinum. The scale runs Bronze at seven years and over, Silver at ten and over, Gold at fifteen and over, Platinum at twenty and over.
Hired by
Business or corporation
Cause
Addition or makeover
Background
"The addition to the building did not match."
Actions taken
"Added many colors and enhancements."
Detail of events
"Took a plain sand molded brick and added the flash and enhancements to it. Enhancements like cross sets and partially stained brick you can see close up. Individual brick can have several colors on it. We can recreate that."
Address
Release permission required
Authorized
Donald A. Foster, signed, dated 2020
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