The buff brick gable end of a Michigan apartment block in 2019, reading as one even range under a long raking eaves line
Case File 210

Staining Mortar and Brick to Match a Michigan Apartment Repair

A restoration repair went into this apartment block and the brick chosen for it did not match what was already on the wall. The mortar and all of the brick were stained in 2000 rather than the patch alone. It was photographed again nineteen years later and certified then.

Case No. 210
Structure Two-story apartment block
Location Michigan
Stained 2000
Re-photographed 2019
Elapsed 19 years, Gold level

2000

  1. The gable end of the apartment block in 2000, a band of pink toned replacement brick running across the upper gable against the buff wall below it, with an applicator working at the foot of the frame Before, 2000 View this photo larger
  2. The same gable end after the 2000 work, the upper gable carried into the buff range of the wall below so the elevation reads as one color After, 2000 View this photo larger

What was wrong

The repair was already in. The brick chosen for it was the problem, and the file is plain about it: the customer wanted a better match on their repair, and the replacement units were not a great texture match for the original brick. The mason or contractor hired the work, not the owner.

What was done

Mineral stain, brushed into the brick by hand. Not the patch on its own: the file records the mortar and 100% of the brick, so the whole elevation was taken into one range instead of the repair being spotted in. The two 2000 frames are the same gable end, before and after.

2019, nineteen years on

  1. The gable end in 2019, the brick one even buff and tan range from the ground to the raking eaves with no patch showing through, and a Brickman Certified stamp printed over the lower right of the frame 19 Years After View this photo larger

What nineteen years prove

Nineteen years on the wall reads as one buff and tan range and the repair does not find itself. On the certification scale that is Gold, which covers fifteen years and over. As of 2026 the work is twenty-six 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 210, 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 210, filled in and signed View the signed form full size
Project name
Restoration Repair MI (2000)
Level
Gold. 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
Other
Issue
"The customer wanted a better match on their repair."
What was corrected
"We stained the mortar and 100% of the brick."
Storyline
"The brick they chose for the restoration repair was not a great texture match for the original brick but our stain covered the color to match the rest of the range."
Address
Withheld on the form: "Permission needed to release address."
Authorized
Donald A. Foster, signed, dated 2019
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Every job we stain enters the same discipline: photographed, revisited, re-photographed.

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