The Michigan office in 2019, tan brick running between beige spandrel bands and around the rounded corner piers at each end
Case File 116

Lightening Dark Brick in the Range on a Michigan Office

Part of the brick range delivered to this two-story office fired darker than the rest, so the finished wall read as spotted. The company that made the brick paid to have the dark units lightened rather than cut out. It was photographed again twenty years later and certified then.

Case No. 116
Structure Two-story office building
Location Michigan
Stained Before 1999
Re-photographed 2019
Elapsed 20 years or more, Platinum level

Before 1999

  1. An applicator standing high on a ladder working across the brick beside the rounded corner of the office, the ground around the building still bare During View this photo larger
  2. The office entrance under its sloped glass roof with newly planted saplings staked on the lawn, the brick a warm red brown in this film frame After View this photo larger

What was wrong

The file puts it in eight words: the dark brick in the range needed lightened. Nothing had failed and nothing was dirty. A run of units in a delivered range had fired darker than the rest, so a wall meant to read as one blend read as spotted instead.

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

What was done

Mineral stain, brushed on by hand, on the dark units only: we lightened all the dark brick. The stain is translucent, which is the constraint the file names. One pass would not carry a dark unit far enough, so each one was stained twice to bring it into the range of the brick around it.

2019, twenty years on

  1. The two-story office from the car park in 2019, one tan and buff brick range running around the rounded corner pier at each end of the elevation 2019 View this photo larger
  2. The outside corner of the office under mature trees in 2019, the rounded brick pier and the flat wall it turns in one range, with the certification stamp in the frame 2019 View this photo larger
  3. The rounded brick corner of the office seen from the ground in 2019, running two stories to the roof edge past the beige spandrel band 2019 View this photo larger
  4. Close view up the curved brick pier in 2019, the units in mixed tan, buff and dull red with deep raked mortar joints 2019 View this photo larger

What twenty years prove

Same corner, same wall, and the lightened units still sit in the range they were stained to. On the certification scale that is Platinum, which covers twenty years and over. The form dates the work before 1999, so as of 2026 it is at least 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 116, 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 116, filled in and signed View the signed form full size
Project name
Office Building in Michigan (Pre1999)
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
"The dark brick in the range needed lightened."
What was corrected
"We lightened all the dark brick."
Storyline
"You can see a few brick that do “look stained”. Our process is translucent, so each dark brick had to be stained twice to lighten up enough to fall in the range of the brick around it. It still looks good today. The staining has held up great!"
Authorized
Donald A. Foster, signed, dated 2019
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