The church gable in 2019, its brick one even cream range behind three flagpoles
Case File 135

Blending Off Color Areas at St Thomas a Becket Church

Areas of off color brick ran around this parish church. The company that made the brick paid to have them blended rather than replaced. It was photographed again eighteen years later and certified then.

Case No. 135
Structure Catholic parish church
Location Michigan
Stained 2001
Re-photographed 2019
Elapsed 18 years, Gold level

2001

  1. The gable end of the church with a round leaded window, its buff brick mottled with greyer off color areas Before, 2001 View this photo larger
  2. The gable end after the work, the brick reading as one cream and buff range up to the round window After, 2001 View this photo larger

What was wrong

The brick did not go up as one color. Nothing had failed and nothing was dirty; areas of the wall did not agree with the rest of it. The file puts it in ten words: there were areas of off colored brick around the church.

It was hired by the brick manufacturer, not the parish 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 over tear-out.

What was done

Mineral stain, brushed on by hand, unit by unit. Not one color laid over the whole wall: the off color areas were brought into the range of the brick around them. The phrase in the file is blended the off color areas for a closer match.

2019, eighteen years on

  1. The church gable seen from the lawn in 2019, three flagpoles across the front and the brick reading as one even cream range 18 Years After View this photo larger
  2. The brick lantern above the roof in 2019, two oval leaded windows in cream brick under banded brown courses 2019 View this photo larger
  3. The brick monument sign at the entrance in 2019, lettered St. Thomas a' Becket Catholic Church, with black-eyed Susans in front of it 2019 View this photo larger

What eighteen years prove

The wall still reads as one range, top to bottom, in daylight that shows every joint. On the certification scale that is Gold, which covers fifteen years and over. As of 2026 the work is twenty-five 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 135, 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 135, filled in and signed View the signed form full size
Project name
Church in Michigan (2001)
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
The brick manufacturer
Reason for project
Complaint or problem
Issue
"There were areas of off colored brick around the church."
What was corrected
"We blended the off color areas for a closer match."
Storyline
"18 years later and it still looks great today! Another success story of a Proven-Masonry-Stain."
Authorized
Donald A. Foster, signed, dated 2019
More Case Studies See all case studies →
The college building from the courtyard in 2019, a tan brick tower rising above a lower brick wing behind an iron railing.

Matching One Floor of Off Run Brick on a Pittsburgh College
Neff Hall from its courtyard walk in 2019, a brick stair tower carrying the building sign between two rendered wings.

Matching a Repaired Wall at Neff Hall in Fort Wayne
The inn entrance in 2019 across a snow-covered forecourt, its brick reading as one warm buff, tan and brown range up to the dormers.

Evening Out Brick Laid Too Light at the Morris Inn

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