The church in 2019, its gabled glazed nave standing beside a long brick wing banded in cream brick
Case File 075

Color Enhancing Light Brick and Mortar at St Francis

Areas of this church went up in brick that came out lighter than the brick around it, outside and inside. The company that made the brick paid to have those areas color enhanced in 1997. It was photographed again twenty-two years later and certified then.

Case No. 075
Structure Church
Location Michigan
Stained September 1997
Re-photographed 2019
Elapsed 22 years, Platinum level

1997

  1. A brick wall running above a flat roof in 1997, a block of paler brick standing out from the orange red on either side of it 1997 View this photo larger
  2. An outside corner of the church at parapet level in 1997, red and brown brick under a cream coping course, with board over an opening below During, 1997 View this photo larger

What was wrong

Nothing had failed and nothing was dirty. Areas of the brick had come out lighter than the brick around them, and the file records where: areas of the light colored brick around the outside and inside of the building.

It was hired by the brick manufacturer, not the congregation and not the mason. A brick company decided the color of a finished church it had supplied was its own problem, and paid for staining.

What was done

Mineral stain, brushed on by hand, into the areas that were off. The correction covered the joints as well as the units: color enhanced areas of brick and mortar. The file is plain that the off colored mortar was not the manufacturer's responsibility, and that it needed staining anyway to help the wall blend better.

2019, twenty-two years on

  1. The church across its parking lot in 2019, the gabled glazed nave on the left and a long brick wing running away to the right 2019 View this photo larger
  2. A band of windows under a soffit in 2019, red brick above and below it with courses of cream brick running through the wall 2019 View this photo larger
  3. A tall brick wall meeting a lower wing in 2019, the brick weathered to one range with darker streaking under the roof edge 22 Years After View this photo larger
  4. The covered entrance and the brick wing beside it in 2019, red brick banded in cream above an empty parking lot 2019 View this photo larger

What twenty-two years prove

The test here is not whether the stained brick still matches on day one. It is whether it aged with everything around it. The file answers that in one clause: the stained brick have weathered the same as the unstained brick. On the certification scale that is Platinum, which covers twenty years and over. As of 2026 the work is twenty-nine 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 075, 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 075, filled in and signed View the signed form full size
Project name
St Francis Church (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
"Areas of the light colored brick around the outside and inside of the building."
What was corrected
"Color enhanced areas of brick and mortar."
Storyline
"The areas of off colored mortar was not the responsibility of the mfg, but needed stained in areas to help the wall blend better. The building has really weathered, but the stained brick have weathered the same as the unstained brick! The staining held up really well."
Authorized
Donald A. Foster, signed, dated 2019
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