A two-story brick house seen from its driveway in 2019, the brick one even tan and cream range across the gables and the arched entry
Case File 104

Darkening Light Brick on a Shelby Township Home

A few areas of light colored brick on this two-story house did not belong in the wall. The company that made the brick paid to have them darkened while the house was still being built. It was photographed again seventeen years later and certified then.

Case No. 104
Structure Two-story home, gabled wings
Location Shelby Township, Michigan
Stained June 2002
Re-photographed 2019
Elapsed 17 years, Gold level

2002

  1. The right side of the house still under construction in 2002, its brick a pale uneven tan around a bay window, an oval window and an arched window, with bare soil where the lawn will go Before, 2002 View this photo larger
  2. The same gabled wing close up in 2002 while the work was under way, a round louvred vent in the gable above an oval window and an arched double window, the brick a warm tan and pink range During, 2002 View this photo larger

What was wrong

Nothing had failed and nothing was dirty. The house was still being built, and the brick had arrived with pale units scattered through it that did not sit in the range. The file records the issue as a few areas of light colored brick that did not belong.

It was hired by the brick manufacturer, not the family and not the builder: the company that supplied the brick paid for staining rather than tear-out.

What was done

Mineral stain, brushed on by hand and only onto the units that needed it. The correction on the form names where it went: we darkened the light colored brick, mainly in the front of the house. Everything else was left as it was laid.

2019, seventeen years on

  1. The house from its driveway in 2019, the brick reading as one even tan and cream range across the gables, the arched entry and the wing beyond, with mature planting along the drive and the Brickman certified stamp in the corner of the frame After, 2019 View this photo larger
  2. The entry gable and the tall arched window from below in 2019, the brick one consistent tan range from the ridge down past the cast stone quoins 2019 View this photo larger
  3. The bay window under its copper roof in 2019, the brick around it and along the wing to the right holding one tan and pink range above a clipped hedge 17 Years After View this photo larger

What seventeen years prove

Same house, same front wall, and the brick still reads as one range from the road. On the certification scale that is Gold, which covers fifteen years and over. As of 2026 the work is twenty-four years old, and the 2019 certification is the most recent record on it.

The file is candid about what was not in scope: there are still blotchy areas in the wall, and nobody was hired to fix them.

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 104, 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 104, filled in and signed View the signed form full size
Project name
Edgewood Shelby (2002)
Level
Gold. 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
Issues
"A few areas of light colored brick that did not belong."
What was corrected
"We darkened the light colored brick (mainly in the front of the house)"
Storyline
"12 years later, our stain still looks great. There are still blotchy areas in the wall, but we were not hired to fix that. They can always hire us to come fix that at any time, and it will last just as long as the staining we did 12 years ago." The two dates on the form are 2002 and 2019, which is seventeen years, and the level marked is Gold at fifteen and over.
Address
"Permission needed to release address"
Authorized
Donald A. Foster, signed, dated 2019
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