The end wall of the college building in 2019, its field brick and soldier courses reading as one red range
Case File 217

Restaining Maroon Soldier Courses on a Michigan College

The soldier courses on this college building were laid in a maroon purple that sat outside the wall around them. The company that made the brick paid to have those courses stained to an orange red. It was photographed again twenty-one years later and certified then.

Case No. 217
Structure Community college building
Location Michigan
Stained 1998
Re-photographed 2019
Elapsed 21 years, Platinum level

1998

  1. A course of upright soldier brick running across a red brick wall in blue purple, with a louver at the left and a ladder standing at the right During, 1998 View this photo larger
  2. The long two story elevation seen down its length, the window bands and the soldier courses between them reading as one red brick range After, 1998 View this photo larger

What was wrong

The field brick was right and the soldier courses were not. The file puts it in nine words: the soldier brick that were installed were off-colored. They read maroon and purple against a wall of reds and browns, so the bands cut across the elevation instead of banding it.

It was hired by the brick manufacturer, not the college and not the mason. A brick company decided the color of a course it had supplied was its own problem, and paid for staining over tear-out.

What was done

Mineral stain, brushed on by hand, unit by unit, on the soldier brick alone. The file: we were hired to stain the soldier brick. The target was a move off maroon and purple to a more orange red, close enough to the field that the courses sit in the wall rather than on it.

2019, twenty-one years on

  1. The end of the college building from the lawn in 2019, the recessed entrance, the low front wall and a blue roof sign lettered J, the brick one even red range 2019 View this photo larger
  2. The glazed entrance bay in 2019 with the letter J on the transom, set between two heights of red brick with soldier courses running across both 2019 View this photo larger
  3. Two courses of upright soldier brick crossing a red brick wall in 2019, the upright units sitting in the same range as the brick above and below them 2019 View this photo larger
  4. The upper wall and parapet in 2019 with the blue J sign at the corner, two soldier courses running the width of the wall in the same red range as the field brick 21 Years After View this photo larger

What twenty-one years prove

Same courses, same wall, and the soldier brick still reads with the field instead of against it. On the certification scale that is Platinum, which covers twenty years and over. As of 2026 the work is twenty-eight 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 217, 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 217, filled in and signed View the signed form full size
Project name
Community College (1998)
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
Other
Issues
“The soldier brick that were installed were off-colored.”
What was corrected
“We were hired to stain the soldier brick.”
Storyline
“The soldier brick were too maroon/purple so they hired us to stain the brick to a more orange/red color. 21 years later the brick color still looks the same as the day we left it.”
Address
“Permission needed to release address”
Authorized
Donald A. Foster, signed, dated 2019
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