The Kroger store front in 2019, its stained brick reading as one even pink and red range
Case File 288

Darkening Light Headers on an Ohio Kroger Store

Too many of the header bricks on this grocery store came out lighter than the wall around them. The company that made the brick paid to have the off-color units stained rather than replaced. It was photographed again twenty-one years later and certified then.

Case No. 288
Structure Grocery store
Location Ohio
Stained 1998
Re-photographed 2019
Elapsed 21 years, Platinum level

1998

  1. The storefront and brick piers of the grocery store in 1998, a window sign in the glass announcing the store opening that December During, 1998 View this photo larger
  2. Close view of the lowest courses of a brick pier above its concrete base in 1998, the units a range of pale pink and darker red During, 1998 View this photo larger

What was wrong

Too many of the header units came out lighter than the brick around them. Nothing had failed and nothing was dirty; the wall did not agree with itself. The file puts it in six words: there were too many light headers.

It was hired by the brick manufacturer, not the store and not the mason. A brick company treated the color of a building it had already supplied as its own problem, and paid for staining rather than tear-out.

What was done

Mineral stain, brushed on by hand, unit by unit. The file records a large percentage of the off-colored brick stained, not one color taken across the whole wall, which is why the finished elevation still reads as a range of pinks and reds rather than a flat tone.

2019, twenty-one years on

  1. The front of the Kroger in 2019, its brick reading as one pink and red range across the store front and the coffee shop beside it 2019 View this photo larger
  2. Two brick wall planes of the store meeting at a corner in 2019, seen from below against the sky, the brick even across both faces 21 Years After View this photo larger
  3. A brick pier between two windows in 2019, its units a mixed pink and red range with pale mortar joints 2019 View this photo larger
  4. An outside brick corner of the store in 2019, the units on both faces reading as one pink and red range 2019 View this photo larger

What twenty-one years prove

Same wall, same headers, and a blend that is the blend it was mixed to. On the certification scale that is Platinum, which covers twenty years and over. The file calls it a job where the process was pushed to its limits. 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 288, 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 288, filled in and signed View the signed form full size
Project name
Kroger in OH (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
Brick manufacturer
Reason for project
Complaint or problem
Issue
"There were too many light headers."
What was corrected
"We stained a large percentage of the off-colored brick."
Storyline
"We pushed our process to its limits for this job but it still looks great 21 years later."
Address
"Permission needed to release address"
Authorized
Donald A. Foster, signed, dated 2019
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