The front of the house in 2021, the grey face brick pier by the garage with its black lantern, the flag, and the covered entrance beyond, with the certification stamp in the corner
Case File 400

Staining White Patches Out of a Mundelein Face Brick

The face brick on this house went up with white patches across it. The company that made the brick paid to have the splotches stained in 1998. It was photographed again twenty-three years later and certified Platinum.

Case No. 400
Structure Two-story house
Location Mundelein, Illinois
Stained July 1998
Re-photographed 2021
Elapsed 23 years, Platinum level

1998

  1. The brick pier beside the garage before staining, grey face brick with white patches across the units and a scatter of dark specks on the lower courses, the base of the lantern at the top Before, 1998 View this photo larger
  2. The garage corner of the house in the summer of 1998 after staining, the pier with its black lantern and the bay window base reading as one mottled grey brick, dark toothed zipper corners where the walls turn After, 1998 View this photo larger

What was wrong

The customer had accepted the zipper corners, the dark toothed brick where the walls turn. The face brick was the problem. It came with white patches across the units, and the file's own word for them is splotches. The company that made the brick hired the correction, not the homeowner.

What was done

The white splotches on the face brick were stained. The file names the method: flicking, a process that adds speckles of stain to a unit so it takes on the mottled range of the brick around it instead of one flat tone. The 1998 frame shows the result on the pier by the garage.

2021, twenty-three years on

  1. The front of the house in 2021, the grey face brick pier by the garage with its black lantern, the flag, and the covered entrance beyond, with the certification stamp in the corner After, 2021 View this photo larger

What twenty-three years prove

Same pier, same lantern, same corners. The face brick reads as one mottled grey range from the garage to the entrance, and the file's verdict on it is that it still looks great 23 years later. On the certification scale that is Platinum, the top of the scale, which starts at twenty years.

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 400, 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 400, filled in and signed View the signed form full size
Project name
Mundelein IN (1998)
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 customer was okay with the zipper corners, but was very unhappy with the face brick showing some white patches."
What was corrected
"We stained the white splotches on the face brick."
Storyline
"Also a great example of flicking: a process we created by adding speckles of spots on the brick to better match the target brick. Still looks great 23 years later!"
Authorized
Donald A. Foster, signed, dated 2021
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