The front of the ranch house in 2019, its cream brick reading as one even range across the gables and the garage wing
Case File 167

Staining Blotchy Brick Back Into Range on a Michigan Ranch

A few bricks on this single story house came out blotchy and off color. The company that made the brick paid to have those areas stained to match the rest. It was photographed again twenty years later and certified then.

Case No. 167
Structure Single story ranch house
Location Michigan
Stained 1999
Re-photographed 2019
Elapsed 20 years, Platinum level

1999

  1. The front of the newly built house in 1999, cream brick above a bare dirt yard, with an arched window in the left gable and a gabled entry porch Before, 1999 View this photo larger
  2. The side elevation in 1999, a long run of cream brick under a dentil course, with a young spruce at the gable end and the ground still bare During, 1999 View this photo larger

What was wrong

The brick went up blotchy. Not the whole house and nothing that had failed: a few units in an otherwise even cream wall came out off color. The file puts it in six words: there was a blotchy discolored brick.

It was hired by the brick manufacturer, not the family and not the mason. A brick company decided the color of a finished house it had supplied was its own problem, and paid to correct it.

What was done

Mineral stain, brushed on by hand, only where it was needed. The phrase in the file is we stained the few areas that were off colored. Nothing was coated and no color was changed: the units that read wrong were brought into the range of the ones around them.

2019, twenty years on

  1. The house seen across the front lawn in 2019, its cream brick reading as one even range along the gables and the garage wing 2019 View this photo larger
  2. The house from the street in 2019, the main roof and both front gables standing above mature planting and a clipped lawn 20 Years After View this photo larger
  3. A front gable in 2019, an arched brick head over a tall window flanked by two upright arborvitae 2019 View this photo larger
  4. The gable end of the garage wing in 2019, an oval louver set in a brick surround above an arched window head 2019 View this photo larger
  5. Close view of the gable brick in 2019, the arched header course over the window reading in the same cream range as the field around it 2019 View this photo larger

What twenty years prove

Same house, same brick, and the corrected areas still sitting in the range of everything around them. On the certification scale that is Platinum, which covers twenty years and over. As of 2026 the work is twenty-seven 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 167, 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 167, filled in and signed View the signed form full size
Project name
Michigan Residence (1999)
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
Complaint or problem
Issue
"There was a blotchy discolored brick."
What was corrected
"We stained the few areas that were off colored."
Storyline
"We got our start in this business doing complaint resolution. Doing small projects just like this one! 20 years later, the stain has held up great!"
Address
"Permission needed to release address"
Authorized
Donald A. Foster, signed, dated 2019
More Case Studies See all case studies →
The front of a single-story home in Washington, Michigan in 2019, brick and siding under a low grey roof

Lightening Dark Brick in a Washington Michigan Home
The house from the front lawn in 2019, the bay window, the arched window and the entry all carrying one warm tan brick blend

Darkening Pale Brick on a Sterling Heights Home
The house from the front lawn in 2019, the brick reading as one even red range across the two-story block and the garage wing.

Darkening Light Brick on a Romeo Michigan Home

Your Project, Documented for Decades

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

Request a Quote
Call Us Request a Quote