A band of the home's brick in 2021, one even red range running along a side wall to the outside corner under a steep gable
Case File 414

Staining a Power Washed Wall Back to the Brick Beside It

A power washer took the face off one long wall of this Ohio home and left the brick beside it untouched. The file records a repair: stain the damaged brick back to the brick that was never hit. It was photographed again twenty-four years later.

Case No. 414
Structure Two-story home
Location Ohio
Stained 1997
Re-photographed 2021
Elapsed 24 years, Platinum level

1997

  1. The long side wall in 1997, its brick bleached pale and blotchy from the corner across to the window while the return wall at the right still runs red and buff Before, 1997 View this photo larger
  2. The gable end in 1997, the brick field reading patchy and washed in places beside banded limestone quoins at the corner and around the arched window Before, 1997 View this photo larger

What was wrong

The file puts it in nine words: this home’s brick were damaged by a power washer. The 1997 frame shows where. One long wall reads pale and mottled, while the return wall beside it, same light and same film, still carries the red and buff range the brick was laid in. A homeowner hired the repair.

What was done

Mineral stain, brushed on by hand, on the damaged brick only. The phrase in the file is: we stained all the damaged brick to match the undamaged brick. Nothing went on the brick the washer had missed, so the match had to hold against the original wall beside it.

2021, twenty-four years on

  1. The outside corner of the house in 2021, two elevations of brick holding one even red range from the mulch beds up past two rows of windows to the gable 2021 View this photo larger
  2. The long side wall in 2021, one even red range running from the covered entry and the condenser unit at the left all the way to the far corner 24 Years After View this photo larger
  3. The gable end in 2021, banded limestone quoins at the corner and around the arched window with the brick holding one even range between them After, 2021 View this photo larger
  4. The arched window and its limestone surround in 2021, close enough to read the range unit by unit across the brick face 2021 View this photo larger
  5. The front of the house in 2021, steep cross gables over a brick facade that reads as one even range past limestone quoins and planted beds 2021 View this photo larger

What twenty-four years prove

The file closes on the only test that matters here: 24 years later and you still can’t tell the difference between the damaged and undamaged brick. The 2021 frames are the same wall, end to end, with no line where the repair stopped. The mark is Platinum, twenty years and over on the certification scale, and as of 2026 the work is twenty-nine years old.

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

The case study form for case 414, filled in and signed View the signed form full size
Project name
Residence, Ohio (1997)
Level
Platinum. The scale runs Bronze at seven years and over, Silver at ten and over, Gold at fifteen and over, Platinum at twenty and over.
Hired by
The homeowner
Cause
Repair
Background
"This home's brick were damaged by a power washer"
Actions taken
"We stained all the damaged brick to match the undamaged brick"
Detail of events
"24 years later and you still can't tell the difference between the damaged and undamaged brick!"
Address
"Release permission required"
Authorized
Donald A. Foster, signed, dated 2020
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