The corner of the Michigan hotel in 2019, both elevations under one flat coat of tan paint
Case File 064

Blending Blotchy Brick on a Michigan Amerihost Hotel

The brick on this two-story hotel went up blotchy. The company that made the brick paid to have it blended in 1999. When it was photographed again twenty years later, an outside contractor had painted over the brick and the paint was already failing.

Case No. 064
Structure Two-story hotel
Location Michigan
Stained April 1999
Re-photographed August 2019
Elapsed 20 years, Platinum level

1999

  1. The gable end of the two-story hotel in 1999 with two extension ladders against the wall, its buff brick carrying patches of pink and orange During, 1999 View this photo larger
  2. The same gable end in 1999 after the work, the buff brick now carrying an even scatter of browns and tans across the whole wall After, 1999 View this photo larger

What was wrong

The walls were blotchy. This is the second of three Amerihost hotels in the file on the same brick with the same complaint, recorded here as this hotel had the same issues as the others.

The brick manufacturer paid for it. Not the owner and not the mason: the company that supplied the brick treated the color of a finished building as its own account.

What was done

Mineral stain, brushed on by hand, unit by unit. The line in the file is we darkened and lightened to create a better blend. Some units came up, some came down, and the elevation was brought into one range.

2019, twenty years on

  1. The corner of the hotel in 2019, both elevations under one flat coat of tan paint with the brick texture still showing through 2019 View this photo larger
  2. A two-story stretch of the hotel wall in 2019 seen from below, the coating flat tan and darkened by soiling toward the ground 2019 View this photo larger
  3. Four courses of brick in close view in 2019, the coating filling the face texture and bridging the mortar joints 2019 View this photo larger
  4. Close view of a bed joint in 2019, the coating broken away along the top edge of the brick below it and the joint opening beneath 20 Years After View this photo larger

What twenty years show

The file records a visit in 2014 with the blend still intact. Somewhere between then and 2019 the hotel hired an outside company to paint the brick. The 2019 frames are that coating at under five years old, lifting along the bed joints, with the brick spalling under it. The staining is certified Platinum, which covers twenty years and over.

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 064, 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 064, filled in and signed View the signed form full size
Project name
Amerihost 2 of 3 (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
Issue
"This hotel had the same issues as the others, blotchy walls."
What was corrected
"We darkened and lightened to create a better blend."
Storyline
"We looked at this project and took pictures in 2014, it still looked great! Since 2014, they must have hired a painting contractor to paint the hotel. What were they thinking?! At most, it could have only been painted for less than 5 years and it's already failing, and brick are spalling!"
Address
"Permission needed to release address"
Authorized
Donald A. Foster, signed, dated 2019
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