A wall of the Michigan house in 2019, pale cream brick running as one range across every course
Case File 223

Staining Out Chips and Smudges on a Michigan Home

The brick on this Michigan house arrived marked, with chips and smudges scattered through the wall. They were stained out in 2004, and a share of the brick around them was stained too, to lighten the whole range. It was photographed again fifteen years later and certified then.

Case No. 223
Structure Cream brick home
Location Michigan
Stained 2004
Re-photographed 2019
Elapsed 15 years, Gold level

2004

  1. The wall beside a window in 2004, pale cream brick with a dark chipped brick and a smudge mark above a small yellow arrow marker Before, 2004 View this photo larger
  2. The same wall after the 2004 work, the marked brick carried into the surrounding color so the courses read as one range, with the yellow arrow marker still in place After, 2004 View this photo larger

What was wrong

Nothing had failed. The brick had arrived marked and it showed up close: the file records many chips and smudge marks on the brick. It was the brick manufacturer who hired the job, not the owners, and the reason on the file is a complaint.

What was done

Mineral stain, brushed into the brick by hand. The file records two things, not one. The chips and smudge marks were stained to blend into the range, and a percentage of the full brick was stained with them, because the homeowner wanted the range lighter. The two 2004 frames are the same wall, before and after, with the same yellow marker in both.

2019, fifteen years on

  1. The brick between two limestone returns in 2019, an even pale cream range with faint tan through it, and a Brickman Certified stamp printed over the lower right of the frame 15 Years After View this photo larger

What fifteen years prove

Fifteen years on the wall reads as one pale cream range, with no chipped or smudged brick breaking it. On the certification scale that is Gold, which covers fifteen years and over. 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 223, 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 223, filled in and signed View the signed form full size
Project name
MI Residence (2004)
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
Brick manufacturer
Reason for project
Complaint or problem
Issue
"There were many chips and smudge marks on the brick."
What was corrected
"We stained all chips and smudge marks."
Storyline
"We were able to stain the chips and smudge marks to better blend in with the range. The homeowner wanted to lighten the range so we stained a percentage of the full brick to achieve a lighter range of brick."
Authorized
Donald A. Foster, signed, dated 2019
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Your Project, Documented for Decades

Every job we stain enters the same discipline: photographed, revisited, re-photographed.

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