The front of the Strongsville home in 2020, its pink salmon brick running one range across the garage wall and the window bays under snow
Case File 358

Restoring Cleaning Damaged Brick on a Strongsville Home

A cleaning meant to take white run-down from an old set of shutters off this two-story home took the sand coating on the brick with it, and the dark red body showed through. In 2005 the homeowner had the exposed brick lightened back to the pink salmon of the rest of the wall. Photographed again fifteen years later and certified Gold.

Case No. 358
Structure Two-story house
Location Strongsville, Ohio
Stained 2005
Re-photographed 2020
Elapsed 15 years, Gold level

2005

  1. The front of the two-story house in 2005, pink brick with darker mottled units around the gable and the window bays, tan shutters at every window Before, 2005 View this photo larger
  2. Two applicators on extension ladders working the brick beside the center window bay in 2005, a third at the garage wall below During, 2005 View this photo larger

What was wrong

A cleaning job, done to take white run-down from the previous shutters off the wall, went through the sand coating on the face of the brick and exposed the dark red body underneath. The homeowner hired the correction.

What was done

Mineral stain, brushed on by hand. The file records it in one line: the dark red exposed brick body was lightened to a pink salmon, like the other bricks.

2020, fifteen years on

  1. The whole front of the house in 2020 under snow, the gable, the center bay and the garage wall reading as one pink salmon brick, with the certification stamp in the corner After, 2020 View this photo larger

What fifteen years prove

One range across the front in 2020, the gable, the window bays and the garage wall reading as one wall. On the certification scale that is Gold, which starts at fifteen years. The file's own line on it: it stays long and strong after it's put down. As of 2026 the work is twenty-one years old, and the 2020 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 358, 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 358, filled in and signed View the signed form full size
Project name
Strongville OH (2005), as written. The town is Strongsville.
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
Homeowner
Reason for project
Other. The four named reasons are all left blank.
Issue
"A cleaning job damaged the brick after trying to remove white rundown from the previous shutters."
What was corrected
"We lightened the dark red exposed brick body to a pink salmon, like the other bricks."
Storyline
"We have good intentions when it comes to removing a stain on brick. In this case while the original stain was removed, the original sand coating was removed as well. That just goes to prove it stays long and strong after it's put down!"
Authorized
Donald A. Foster, signed, dated 2020
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Every job we stain enters the same discipline: photographed, revisited, re-photographed.

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