An Ohio library in 2019, one range of red brick running across both wings under a low roofline
Case File 001

Color Correcting Brick and Mortar on an Ohio Library

The brick and mortar on this library went up off color. The company that made the brick paid to have the questionable areas corrected rather than see them torn out. It was photographed again thirty-three years later and certified then.

Case No. 001
Structure Single-story library
Location Ohio
Stained 1986
Re-photographed 2019
Elapsed 33 years, Platinum level

1986

  1. A low library wall in 1986 running dark and green down its length, meeting a return wall in a much pinker brick at the corner Before, 1986 View this photo larger
  2. A ladder standing against the library corner during the 1986 work, one face reading warm red and the return face pale cream During, 1986 View this photo larger

What was wrong

The file puts it in seven words: the brick and mortar colors were ‘off’. Not dirt, not failure. The units and the joints between them were out of range.

The brick manufacturer hired the work. Not the owner and not the mason: the company that supplied the brick treated the color of a finished library as its own problem.

What was done

Mineral stain, brushed on by hand. The phrase in the file is color corrected the questionable areas: the parts that were out of range, not the whole elevation.

2019, thirty-three years on

  1. The library front in 2019, one range of red brick across both wings, a flag on a pole at the entrance and the Brickman certified stamp in the corner of the frame After, 2019 View this photo larger
  2. The library's long side wall in 2019, the brick holding one even red and brown range from the ground to the roofline 33 Years After View this photo larger
  3. Interior brick beside a library window in 2019, the units an even red range next to a wall of shelved books 2019 View this photo larger
  4. An interior brick wall in the library in 2019, with a wide opening through to the shelves where people are browsing 2019 View this photo larger

What thirty-three years prove

The file is candid about its own limits. The 1986 archive is thin, and additions built onto the library since have covered some of the work. What stayed in view is what the 2019 visit recorded, in the file's words: 33 years later and the staining is still holding up strong.

On the certification scale that is Platinum, the top band, which covers twenty years and over. As of 2026 the work is forty 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 001, 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 001, filled in and signed View the signed form full size
Project name
Ohio Library (1986)
Level
Platinum, the top band. 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
"The brick and mortar colors were ‘off’."
What was corrected
"We color corrected the questionable areas."
Storyline
"Granted we did this project in 1986, we have very limited before and after pictures. Plus, they added additions to the library that covered some of the staining we did, but from what we can see, 33 years later and the staining is still holding up strong."
Address
Withheld on the form: "Permission needed to release address."
Authorized
Donald A. Foster, signed, dated 2019
More Case Studies See all case studies →
The front of Lawton High School in 2019, the brick reading as one range along the whole wall

Matching an Expansion to the Existing Lawton High School
The Bed Bath & Beyond storefront in 2019, its entrance piers and the wall behind them reading as one red brick

Staining Tan Piers Into the Red Wall of a Pickerington Store
A brick high rise in Canton, Michigan, its two runs of brick reading as one

Darkening the Light Run on a Canton High Rise

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