The low brick wall under the front windows in 2019, running the same brown range as the house wall beside it
Case File 071

Matching a Rebuilt Front Wall on a Spencerville Home

The small wall in front of this house was rebuilt in brick that did not match the rest of it. The homeowner paid to have the new brick colored rather than taken down again. It was photographed again twenty-one years later and certified then.

Case No. 071
Structure Single-story home, brick and siding
Location Spencerville, Indiana
Stained October 1998
Re-photographed 2019
Elapsed 21 years, Platinum level

1998

  1. The glazed front bay in 1998, the low wall under its windows built in pale cream brick against the tan brick of the house beside it Before, 1998 View this photo larger
  2. The front of the single-story house in 1998 with a man working at the low wall under the front windows, a toolbox on the grass and a camera date stamp reading 10 13 98 in the corner October 1998 View this photo larger

What was wrong

A small wall in front of the house had been rebuilt, and the new brick came in lighter than everything around it. The file puts the issue in eight words: the bricks used were not a good match.

The Hired by line reads homeowner, so the people living in the house paid for it. The storyline is blunter than the issue line: they did not even try to match the brick when they replaced the small wall in front of the house.

What was done

Mineral stain, brushed on by hand, unit by unit. The light replacement brick was brought down into the range of the wall around it, which the file records as coloring the light colored brick to create a better match. The change was large enough that it took a couple of applications.

2019, twenty-one years on

  1. The gable end and glazed front bay of the house in 2019, the low wall under the windows reading the same brown range as the brick above it, with the Brickman certified stamp in the corner of the frame After, 2019 View this photo larger
  2. The outside corner of the low front wall in 2019, tan brick under a rowlock cap course, mottled darker across some units, with grass on one side and lava rock on the other 21 Years After View this photo larger
  3. Close view of the low wall in 2019, seven courses of tan brick between dark mortar joints, several units carrying darker patches across their faces 2019 View this photo larger

What twenty-one years prove

The mark on the file is Platinum, which covers twenty years and over on the certification scale. The file is also plain about the limits of this one. The brick was hard, the color stayed on the surface instead of reaching the pore structure, and the note says you can see where it has worn. It says the product can be re-applied in those areas. As of 2026 the work is twenty-eight 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 071, transcribed beside the scan so it can be read on a phone and by a search engine.

The case study form for case 071, filled in and signed View the signed form full size
Project name
Residence in Spencerville, IN (1998)
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
Homeowner
Reason for project
Other. The form's three named reasons are all left blank and the X is against Other, with no words written beside it.
Issues
"The bricks used were not a good match."
What was corrected
"MCI colored the light colored brick to create a better match."
Storyline
"They did not even try to match the brick when they replaced the small wall in front of the house! Because of the major color change, it took us a couple applications. Due to the brick were so hard, we could not get embedded into the pore structure of the brick and our stain stayed on the surface. This project was not a complete failure, but you can see where we ware. We still can re-apply our product in the areas it came off. Maybe we can surprise them in 2020 and touch it up for them!"
Address
"Permission needed to release address"
Authorized
Donald A. Foster, signed, dated 07/20/2019
More Case Studies See all case studies →
The house from the front lawn in 2019, its brick one even range of cream, buff and soft grey across both gables.

Lightening Blotchy Dark Brick on a Macomb Michigan Home
The single-story house from the street in 2019, one range of red brick running across the garage wing and the entry.

Taking Light Orange Brick to Red on an Ohio Ranch Home
The rear of the house across the lawn in 2019, its brick reading as one even range from the terrace wall up to the gables

Breaking Up Clustered Color on a Franklin Michigan Home

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