The stained brick of the Solon entry elevation in 2019, running as one buff and tan range under a band of clerestory windows
Case File 245

Matching a New Addition on a Solon Ohio Children's Center

A new addition went up in brick that did not match the building it joined. A business hired the correction, and the brick on the addition was stained into range in 1996. It was photographed again twenty-three years later and certified then.

Case No. 245
Structure Children’s center
Location Solon, Ohio
Stained 1996
Re-photographed 2019
Elapsed 23 years, Platinum level

1996

  1. The new addition in 1996, its gable end sheathed in raw plywood above unglazed openings, the brick below a pale orange tan Before, 1996 View this photo larger
  2. A low wall of the addition in 1996 with darker units set through a pale orange tan field, bare earth and pipe stubs at its base During, 1996 View this photo larger

What was wrong

A new addition was built onto an existing building and the brick on it did not agree with the brick already there. Nothing had failed and nothing was dirty. The file puts the issue in nine words: the customer wanted a better match for their building.

It was hired by a business, not by the mason and not by the company that supplied the brick.

What was done

Mineral stain, brushed on by hand, over the majority of the brick on the new addition. Not one flat color across the wall: the file records several custom recipes mixed for this job, one adding a percentage of darks and two more adding range to the base color of the brick.

2019, twenty-three years on

  1. The entry elevation in 2019, stained brick running as one buff and tan range under a band of clerestory windows, a cupola above the roof and a walkway to the door 2019 View this photo larger
  2. A long two-storey elevation in 2019, stained brick with darker units scattered through it between panels of cream siding, seen over a slatted boundary fence 2019 View this photo larger
  3. A two-storey brick pier and its windows in 2019, the stain reading as one even range from the ground to the eaves 2019 View this photo larger
  4. Close view of the stained brick in 2019, darker units distributed through a buff and tan field, with the certification stamp at the lower right 23 Years After View this photo larger

What twenty-three years prove

The addition and the building it joined still read as one wall, and the darks and the range mixed into those recipes are still in the brick. On the certification scale that is Platinum, which covers twenty years and over. As of 2026 the work is thirty 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 245, 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 245, filled in and signed View the signed form full size
Project name
Solon OH Project (1996)
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
Business or corporation
Reason for project
Addition or makeover
Issue
"The customer wanted a better match for their building."
What was corrected
"We stained the majority of the brick on the new addition."
Storyline
"For this project we created several custom recipes. One for adding a percentage of darks and two others for adding range to the base color of the brick. 23 years later and the building still looks fantastic!"
Authorized
Donald A. Foster, signed, dated 2019
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