A single story hardware store in 2019, its tan brick piers and field wall under a dark metal fascia
Case File 292

Correcting Power Wash Damage on an Ohio Hardware Store

A pressure washer stripped the color off the brick on this store and cut into the face of the units. The mason who hired the job had the affected areas color corrected in 1999. It was photographed again twenty years later and certified then.

Case No. 292
Structure Single story hardware store
Location Ohio
Stained April 1999
Re-photographed 2019
Elapsed 20 years, Platinum level

1999

  1. A buff brick wall in 1999 with broad tan and orange patches where a pressure washer has taken the color off, a payphone mounted at the left Before, 1999 View this photo larger
  2. The same buff brick wall part way through the work in 1999, a masking line stepped across the lower courses and two buckets of brushes standing on the sidewalk During, 1999 View this photo larger

What was wrong

The file records power wash damage to the building. A pressure washer had taken the color off the brick in patches and cut into the face of the units underneath. The file is candid about the limit of the repair: texture cannot be put back, only the appearance.

It was hired by the mason or contractor, not the owner. The job is logged as a complaint or problem rather than a color change.

What was done

Mineral stain, worked into the scoured units by hand until they sat back in the range of the wall around them. The phrase in the file is color corrected all of the areas affected, which is why the finished elevation reads as one buff and tan wall rather than as a repair.

2019, twenty years on

  1. The hardware store seen across its parking lot in 2019, tan brick piers and field walls carrying a dark metal fascia above the entrance 2019 View this photo larger
  2. A stretch of the tan brick elevation above the sidewalk in low evening sun in 2019, an accent band of grey units running through the wall 20 Years After View this photo larger
  3. Close view of the brick in 2019, the units reading as one range of tan and soft pink with grey mortar joints 2019 View this photo larger
  4. The entrance bay looked along in 2019, tan brick piers and rough cast stone banding running past the doors 2019 View this photo larger

What twenty years prove

The corrected areas still sit in the range of the brick around them, and nothing on the wall reads as a patch. On the certification scale that is Platinum, which covers twenty years and over. As of 2026 the work is twenty-seven 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 292, 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 292, filled in and signed View the signed form full size
Project name
OH Hardware Store (1999)
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
Complaint or problem
Issue
"There was power wash damage to the building."
What was corrected
"We color corrected all of the areas affected."
Storyline
"Not only does power wash damage remove the color it also cuts into the brick surface. We are not able to fix the texture of a brick in any way, we just fix the aesthetic issues. It takes an artistic flare to be able to fix the cuts in the brick that a powerwash wand creates. The areas that we stained still look great today!"
Authorized
Donald A. Foster, signed, dated 2019
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