The front corner of the Michigan restaurant in 2019, red brick with buff bands under yellow awnings and green gooseneck lamps
Case File 145

Staining Brick and Mortar on a Michigan Restaurant

The brick on this restaurant went up off color across the whole exterior. The company that made the brick paid to have the off color units and the mortar stained rather than replaced. It was photographed again eighteen years later and certified then.

Case No. 145
Structure Restaurant
Location Michigan
Stained 2001
Re-photographed 2019
Elapsed 18 years, Platinum level

2001

  1. A striped awning over a window in 2001, the brick around it running from red to a paler tan across the courses, with a camera date of 5/29/01 burned in at the corner Before, 2001 View this photo larger
  2. The wall under the restaurant sign in 2001, dark red brick blotched with lighter units and stepped buff bands above, with a camera date of 5/13/01 burned in Before, 2001 View this photo larger
  3. A green service door in a brick wall in 2001, the courses banded pale and dark above a buff base, with bare dirt where the landscaping will go Before, 2001 View this photo larger
  4. An applicator working stain into the brick by hand at the base of a wall in 2001, an extension ladder set against the courses beside him During, 2001 View this photo larger

What was wrong

Off colored brick throughout the exterior, in the file’s words. The two dated 2001 frames show it: pale bands and darker patches running through the courses, and the units under the sign reading several shades apart. The company that made the brick hired the correction, not the restaurant.

What was done

Stain worked into each brick individually, with custom recipes, as the evidence pages put it. The file records the brick and the mortar both as stained. The method is on a sticky note in the file: lightening some units and darkening others until the wall reads as one blend.

2019, eighteen years on

  1. The front corner of the restaurant in 2019, red brick with buff bands under two yellow awnings and green gooseneck lamps, a black canopy over the entrance and shrubs along the base 2019 View this photo larger
  2. The same window bay in 2019, the striped awning replaced by yellow banners with the apple mark, the brick around it one even red range After, 2019 View this photo larger
  3. The service door wall in 2019, a yellow banner over the entrance and an evergreen grown up against the corner, the courses one red range down to the buff base After, 2019 View this photo larger
  4. A long side wall in 2019, red brick running even from the buff band under the roofline to the shrubs and grasses at its base 18 Years After View this photo larger
  5. The canopy corner in 2019, red brick above a black steel canopy with a lamp arm, green window frames below and the edge of the sign at the right After, 2019 View this photo larger

What eighteen years prove

Same walls, same courses, one range from the coping to the base. The file notes no fading, blistering, cracking, peeling or flaking, and that the stain does not seal or trap water. The form marks the record Platinum. As of 2026 the work is twenty-five 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 145, transcribed beside the form page so it can be read on a phone and by a search engine.

The case study form for case 145, filled in and signed View the signed form full size
Project name
Restaurant, Michigan (2001)
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
Cause
Complaint or problem
Background
“There was off-colored brick throughout the exterior of this restaurant.”
Actions taken
“We stained the off-colored brick and the mortar.”
Detail of events
“18 years later we went back to check on the stain, and it still looks as great as when we left it!”
Authorized
Donald A. Foster, signed, dated 2020
Address
Release permission required, the form’s standard line
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