The buff brick of the apartment building in 2019, running unbroken around an outside corner
Case File 208

Matching Replacement Brick After a Fire on Michigan Apartments

Fire damaged this two-story apartment building. A restoration contractor replaced the brick and found a close match, and staining in 2005 closed the rest of the gap. It was photographed again fourteen years later and certified then.

Case No. 208
Structure Two-story apartment building
Location Michigan
Stained 2005
Re-photographed 2019
Elapsed 14 years, Silver level

2005

  1. Fire damaged brick around a ground floor window in 2005, the units above the opening scorched dark and the soffit above them burnt through Before, 2005 View this photo larger
  2. The front of the block in 2005 with a ladder lying on the lawn, the ground floor brick one even buff range under white siding After, 2005 View this photo larger

What was wrong

The file records the issue in five words: the building had fire damage. A restoration contractor had already replaced the burnt brick and found a close match. Close was not the same as matched.

The mason contractor hired the work, not the owner. The reason recorded on the form is a color change.

What was done

Mineral stain, brushed on by hand, unit by unit, and in both directions at once. The phrase in the file is that the brick was lightened and darkened for a better match, which is what replacement units set into a weathered wall usually need.

2019, fourteen years on

  1. An outside corner of the apartment building in 2019, the buff brick reading as one even range across both elevations under white siding, with a site sign on the overhang 2019 View this photo larger
  2. Close view of the buff brick at an outside corner in 2019, the courses running unbroken past a downpipe to a ground floor window with a soldier course above it 14 Years After View this photo larger
  3. Three ground floor windows set in buff brick piers under the siding overhang in 2019, the brick one range across the piers and the header course 2019 View this photo larger

What fourteen years prove

Same building, same buff brick, and a repair that no longer reads as a repair. The file puts it plainly: 14 years later, it still looks good. On the certification scale that is Silver, which covers ten years and over. As of 2026 the work is twenty-one 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 208, 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 208, filled in and signed View the signed form full size
Project name
Fire Damage Century Dr. (2005)
Level
Silver. 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
Color change
Issue
"The building had fire damage."
What was corrected
"We lightened and darkened brick for a better match."
Storyline
"The restoration contractor found a close match but we were hired to achieve a closer match. 14 years later, it still looks good."
Authorized
Donald A. Foster, signed, dated 2019
More Case Studies See all case studies →
The front of Lawton High School in 2019, the brick reading as one range along the whole wall

Matching an Expansion to the Existing Lawton High School
The Bed Bath & Beyond storefront in 2019, its entrance piers and the wall behind them reading as one red brick

Staining Tan Piers Into the Red Wall of a Pickerington Store
A brick high rise in Canton, Michigan, its two runs of brick reading as one

Darkening the Light Run on a Canton High Rise

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