The brick entry tower of the Ohio restaurant in 2019, two faces of red brick meeting at the corner against a clear sky
Case File 253

Staining Off Color Brick at an Ohio Restaurant Entrance

Some of the brick near the front door of this restaurant went up a different color from the rest. The company that made the brick paid to have those units stained in 1997. The building was photographed again twenty-two years later and certified then.

Case No. 253
Structure Restaurant
Location Ohio
Stained July 1997
Re-photographed 2019
Elapsed 22 years, Platinum level

1997

  1. The restaurant front in 1997, a two-story brick entry tower carrying an Ohio Brewing sign above an arched doorway, with single-story wings on both sides Before, 1997 View this photo larger
  2. Close view of the brick at an inside corner under the entry canopy in 1997, several units reading darker and patchier than the wall around them During, 1997 View this photo larger

What was wrong

A run of units near the entrance did not match the wall around them. Nothing had failed and nothing was dirty. The file puts it in eleven words: there were some off-colored brick near the entrance of the building.

It was hired by the brick manufacturer. The company that made the brick treated the color of a building it had already supplied as its own problem.

What was done

Mineral stain, brushed on by hand, unit by unit. Only the off-colored brick was treated, which is why the wall still reads as a range of reds rather than one flat color. The file records the correction in five words: we stained the off-colored brick.

2019, twenty-two years on

  1. The entry tower from the pavement in 2019, two faces of red brick meeting at the corner under a projecting cornice against a clear sky 2019 View this photo larger
  2. The restaurant entrance in 2019, an arched display window and a recessed door set in brick that reads as one red range along the wall 2019 View this photo larger
  3. The entry tower seen from below in 2019, the brick an even red range from the arched window up to the dentil course 22 Years After View this photo larger
  4. Close view of the brick under the entrance canopy in 2019, an even red and brown range running up to a projecting dentil course 2019 View this photo larger

What twenty-two years prove

The 1997 frame carries an Ohio Brewing sign over the arch and a camera date of 29 July. By 2019 the sign had changed and the brick had not. The file puts it plainly: 22 years later our process never compromised the wall, never flaked, cracked, or blistered. On the certification scale that is Platinum, which covers twenty years and over. In 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 253, 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 253, filled in and signed View the signed form full size
Project name
OH Restaurant (1997)
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 brick manufacturer
Reason for project
Complaint or problem
Issue
"There were some off-colored brick near the entrance of the building."
What was corrected
"We stained the off-colored brick."
Storyline
"This was a small job but 22 years later our process never compromised the wall, never flaked, cracked, or blistered."
Authorized
Donald A. Foster, signed, dated 2019
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Your Project, Documented for Decades

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

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