The wall of the Ohio youth center in 2019, brick running as one even range past the building sign to a pine at the corner
Case File 354

Blending Fill-In Brick Into an Ohio Youth Center Wall

A panel of fill-in brick on the front wall of this youth center did not match the wall around it. The mason hired the color correction rather than rebuild, and the wall was photographed again seventeen years later.

Case No. 354
Structure Single-story youth center
Location Ohio
Stained 2002
Re-photographed 2019
Elapsed 17 years, Platinum level

2002

  1. The front wall in 2002, a wide rectangle of redder fill-in brick standing out from the buff brick around it under the building sign, with a red bench on the walk below Before, 2002 View this photo larger
  2. The same elevation from an angle later in 2002, the fill-in panel no longer separating from the buff brick, with newly planted trees and a red bench along the walk After, 2002 View this photo larger

What was wrong

A block of fill-in brick sat mid wall, darker and redder than the buff brick around it. Nothing had failed. From the walk it read as a patch, and the file puts it in one line: the fill-ins did not match the rest of the building.

What was done

The darker brick was colored to carry it toward the wall around it. The brief was narrow and the file says so: less visible, not a perfect match. That is a smaller job than a full color change.

2019, seventeen years on

  1. The same wall in 2019 from the walk, brick reading as one range behind the building sign, the red bench still in place and the sapling beside it grown into a pine 2019 View this photo larger
  2. The wall close up in 2019, courses running evenly across the full width below and around the building sign with no patch reading through 17 Years After View this photo larger

What seventeen years prove

Same wall, same bench, same stretch of walk, and the panel no longer picks itself out of the courses. The form records Platinum, and the file closes on the plainest claim it could make: it still looks as good as the day we left.

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 354, transcribed beside the scan so it can be read on a phone and by a search engine.

The case study form for case 354, filled in and signed View the signed form full size
Project name
Youth Center, Ohio (2002)
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 mason or contractor
Reason for project
Other
Issue
"The fill-ins didn't match the rest of the building"
What was corrected
"We colored the darker brick for a better match"
Storyline
"We were only hired to make it less visible, and not a perfect match. It still looks as good as the day we left!"
Authorized
Donald A. Foster, signed, dated 2020
More Case Studies See all case studies →
The office seen from across its front lawn in 2019, the brick reading as one red and orange range across both storeys.

Staining a Lansing Corporate Office to an Even Range
The corner of the university building in 2019, both brick elevations reading as one tan and red range up to the stone coping.

Staining the Top of a Michigan University Wall to Match
An outside corner of the office in 2019, the blended brick running as one range across both faces under a clear sky

Blending a Two Story Michigan Office Brick Range

Your Project, Documented for Decades

Every job we stain enters the same discipline: photographed, revisited, re-photographed.

Request a Quote
Call Us Request a Quote