The end wall of the apartment block in 2019, its brick one even brown range under a dark parapet coping
Case File 274

Staining Upper Apartment Walls in Michigan to the Range

The upper section of these apartment walls went up in a brick the owner had matched as closely as they could find. It was not close enough. The upper walls were stained in August 2004 and photographed again fifteen years later.

Case No. 274
Structure Three-story apartment block
Location Michigan
Stained August 2004
Re-photographed 2019
Elapsed 15 years, Silver level

2004

  1. A pale band of newly laid brick running across the upper third of the wall, meeting the darker original brick below it in a hard horizontal line During, 2004 View this photo larger
  2. The blank end wall of a three-story apartment block in 2004, balconies and windows stepping down its right-hand corner above a fenced enclosure During, 2004 View this photo larger

What was wrong

New brick went onto the upper section of the walls in a color the customer had already gone out and shopped for. The file records the result in one line: the customer found the best match they could find but it still wasn't close enough. The 2004 frame shows what that looked like, a pale band sitting hard against the darker brick under it.

It was hired by the business that owns the buildings. Not a mason, not the brick supplier, and not an insurer.

What was done

Mineral stain, brushed on by hand. The file says we stained 100% of the brick, and the storyline says where: the upper section of the walls. The pale band was brought down into the range of the brick below it, rather than the whole elevation being taken to one flat color.

2019, fifteen years on

  1. The same end wall in 2019 seen from below, the parapet running the width of the frame and the brick carrying one even brown range from the coping to the ground 2019 View this photo larger
  2. The full end elevation from the parking lot in 2019, one even brown wall from the coping down to the planting, with the Brickman certified stamp in the corner of the frame 15 Years After View this photo larger
  3. The same wall from the opposite corner in 2019 out of the sun, the brick reading as one consistent range beside a mature tree 2019 View this photo larger

What fifteen years prove

Same walls, and no band. The file puts it in six words of its own: fifteen years later they look great. On the certification scale that is Silver. As of 2026 the work is twenty-two 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 274, 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 274, filled in and signed View the signed form full size
Project name
MI Apartments (2004)
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 business or corporation
Reason for project
Other
Issue
"The customer found the best match they could find but it still wasn't close enough."
What was corrected
"We stained 100% of the brick."
Storyline
"We stained the upper section of the walls and 15 years later they look great!"
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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