The gabled brick entrance of the Kroger in 2019, its columns and wall reading as one red and brown range
Case File 129

Blending Mismatched Brick Columns at a Michigan Kroger

The brick columns at this store's entrance went up a different color from the walls they stand against. The business paid to have the columns blended rather than rebuilt. It was photographed again twenty-two years later and certified then.

Case No. 129
Structure Grocery store
Location Michigan
Stained 1997
Re-photographed 2019
Elapsed 22 years, Platinum level

1997

  1. A brick column at the store entrance in 1997, its units a pale salmon and cream against the darker red brown brick of the gable behind it Before, 1997 View this photo larger
  2. The store entrance in 1997 after staining, the gable and its columns reading as one red brown range beside the buff block wall After, 1997 View this photo larger

What was wrong

The columns at the entrance came out a different range from the walls they stand against. Nothing had failed and nothing was dirty. The file puts it in six words: the brick columns did not match.

It was hired by the business that runs the store, not the mason and not the brick supplier.

What was done

Mineral stain, brushed on by hand, unit by unit. The columns were brought into the range of the walls beside them rather than taken to one flat tone, which is why the finished entrance still reads as several brick colors. The file records the work as making the columns blend better with the walls.

2019, twenty-two years on

  1. The front of the Kroger in 2019, its gabled brick entrance and columns running along the parking lot under a green cornice 2019 View this photo larger
  2. An outside corner of an entrance column in 2019, its units a blend of red, brown and tan across pale grey mortar joints 22 Years After View this photo larger
  3. An entrance column in 2019 carrying a stop sign, its brick reading with the gable wall and the cast stone base behind it 2019 View this photo larger
  4. Close view of the stained brick at unit scale in 2019, the units ranging from orange red through tan to dark brown across grey mortar 2019 View this photo larger

What twenty-two years prove

Same columns, same entrance, and a blend that is the blend it was mixed to. On the certification scale that is Platinum, which covers twenty years and over. As of 2026 the work is twenty-nine 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 129, 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 129, filled in and signed View the signed form full size
Project name
Kroger in Michigan (1997)
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
Business or corporation
Reason for project
Addition or makeover
Issue
"The brick columns did not match."
What was corrected
"We were hired to make the columns blend better with the walls."
Storyline
"Another small project, but 22 years later, it still looks great!"
Address
"Permission needed to release address"
Authorized
Donald A. Foster, signed, dated 2019
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