The brick of the hospital pavilion in 2019, one even red range from the gables down to the balustrade
Case File 045

Blending Discolored Brick at Munster Community Hospital

The brick on this hospital went up discolored in several areas of the building. The company that made the brick paid to have the light units darkened back into range. It was photographed again twenty-one years later and certified then.

Case No. 045
Structure Hospital
Location Munster, Indiana
Stained September 1998
Re-photographed 2019
Elapsed 21 years, Platinum level

1998

  1. A two-storey brick wall on the hospital in 1998, a broad field of it reading duller and browner than the courses running round the corner beside it Before, 1998 View this photo larger
  2. The gable end of the hospital in September 1998 with a ladder up to the second storey, a worker on the ground and a lift parked on the fill beside him During, 1998 View this photo larger

What was wrong

Nothing had failed and nothing was dirty; the units did not agree with each other, so the wall read in patches. The file records it in one line: discolored brick in several areas of the building.

The brick manufacturer hired the work, not the hospital and not the mason. The company that supplied the brick treated the color of a finished building as its own account and paid to correct it.

What was done

Mineral stain, brushed in by hand, unit by unit, in the areas that were out of range. The correction ran one direction: the lighter brick was darkened until it sat with the units around it. The phrase in the file is a better blend of the wall.

2019, twenty-one years on

  1. The hospital in 2019, a gabled brick pavilion with a balustraded balcony over a bay window, the brick holding one red range across every gable After, 2019 View this photo larger
  2. The hospital seen across its lawn in 2019, a long two-storey brick elevation with a pedimented centre bay, the brick even in color end to end 2019 View this photo larger
  3. The entrance end of the hospital in 2019, brick running past shuttered windows and a chimney to a flagpole and a covered doorway 2019 View this photo larger
  4. Close view of the hospital brick in 2019, red and darker red units sitting side by side in pale mortar joints 21 Years After View this photo larger

What twenty-one years prove

Same building, and a wall that still holds one range from the gable down to the balustrade. On the certification scale that is Platinum, which covers twenty years and over. As of 2026 the work is twenty-eight 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 045, 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 045, filled in and signed View the signed form full size
Project name
Munster Community Hospital (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
"Discolored brick in several areas of the building."
What was corrected
"MCI blended the off colored areas for a better match."
Storyline
"MCI darkened a lot of the lighter brick for a better blend of the wall."
Address
Left blank, printed "Permission needed to release address."
Authorized
Donald A. Foster, signed, dated 2019
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