The outside corner of the brick pier at the Midland home in 2021, red and flashed blue grey brick in one range beside white siding
Case File 383

Bringing Up Red and Flashed Colors on a Midland Home

The brick on this home came out of the kiln duller than the sample range the owner had picked from. The brick manufacturer paid to have the red and flashed units brought up rather than torn out. The pier was photographed again twenty-four years later and certified Platinum.

Case No. 383
Structure Home, brick pier
Location Midland, Michigan
Stained August 1997
Re-photographed 2021
Elapsed 24 years, Platinum level

1997

  1. The face of the brick pier in August 1997 before staining, flashed grey and dull red units in pale mortar beside a maroon door frame, with the camera date 8/26/97 burned in Before, 1997 View this photo larger
  2. The same pier face on the same day after staining, the red units now reading bright against the blue grey ones, with the camera date 8/26/97 burned in After, 1997 View this photo larger

What was wrong

The file puts it in one line: the color range did not match the sample color range, it was too dull. Nothing had failed. A flashed brick fires red on one face and blue grey on the next, and this run came out flatter than the panel it was sold from. The brick manufacturer hired the correction, not the homeowner.

What was done

Mineral stain, brushed on by hand, unit by unit. The file records the correction as enhancing the red and flashed colors to stand out more. The two 1997 frames are the same pier face on the same day, 26 August by the camera stamp, before and after.

2021, twenty-four years on

  1. The outside corner of the brick pier in 2021 with snow on the ground and a boxwood at its foot, red and flashed blue grey units still in one range beside white siding and a garage door, with the certification stamp in the corner After, 2021 View this photo larger

What twenty-four years prove

Same pier, seen at its corner, in snow. The reds and the flashed faces still read against the grey units. On the certification scale that is Platinum, twenty years and over. As of 2026 the work is twenty-nine years old, and the 2021 revisit 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 383, 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 383, filled in and signed View the signed form full size
Project name
Midland MI (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
The brick manufacturer
Reason for project
Complaint or problem
Issue
"The color range didn't match the sample color range; it was too dull."
What was corrected
"We enhanced the red and flashed colors to stand out more."
Storyline
"24 years later and the stained brick still looks great!"
Authorized
Donald A. Foster, signed, dated 2020
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