The O'Fallon office in 2019, a buff soldier band running level below the window line of its orange brick wall
Case File 057

Tightening the Soldier Band Range on an O'Fallon Office

One course of brick on this single-story office ran a wider range of color than the rest of the wall. The correction was hired by the mason or contractor, and only that course was touched. It was photographed again sixteen years later and certified then.

Case No. 057
Structure Single-story office
Location O'Fallon, Illinois
Stained 2003
Re-photographed 2019
Elapsed 16 years, Gold level

2003

  1. A single-story office in 2003 seen along its long wall, deep red brick with a buff soldier band below the window sills that drifts from cream to tan across the elevation Before, 2003 View this photo larger
  2. The office in 2003 from the opposite direction, the soldier band running as one tan course below the windows and past a glazed door, with fresh asphalt in front of it After, 2003 View this photo larger

What was wrong

One course was out of step with the rest. Not the wall: the soldier band, the row of units set on end that runs below the window line. The file puts it in seven words: the soldier band had too much range.

It was hired by the mason or contractor, not the owner. Nothing had failed and nothing was dirty. One course simply spread wider in color than the brick around it.

What was done

Mineral stain, brushed on by hand, on the soldier brick only. The body of the wall was left as laid. The phrase in the file is stained the soldier brick for a tighter range: not a new color over the course, a narrower spread of the colors already in it.

2019, sixteen years on

  1. The office seen across its car park in 2019, a low hip-roofed brick building whose buff soldier band runs unbroken below the window line, the frame carrying the Brickman Certified stamp 2019 View this photo larger
  2. The long side wall of the office in 2019, a buff soldier band running level below the windows and a second buff course under the eaves, the brick between them an even orange red 16 Years After View this photo larger
  3. An outside corner of the office in 2019, the buff soldier band carrying around the return onto the end wall below a tenant sign, with a projecting brick pier at the corner 2019 View this photo larger
  4. Close view of the soldier band above a window head in 2019, the upright buff units holding one range against the orange brick laid around them 2019 View this photo larger

What sixteen years prove

Same band, same wall, and a course that still sits inside the range it was brought to. On the certification scale that is Gold, which covers fifteen years and over. As of 2026 the work is twenty-three 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 057, 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 057, filled in and signed View the signed form full size
Project name
Office in O'Fallon, IL (2003)
Level
Gold. 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 mason or contractor
Reason for project
Complaint or problem
Issue
"The soldier band had too much range."
What was corrected
"We stained the soldier brick for a tighter range."
Storyline
"16 years later, the soldier band still looks great!"
Authorized
Donald A. Foster, signed, dated 2019
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