When repairing your masonry or adding new bricks to your original structure, brick matching is essential. However, finding the exact bricks or a seamless blend can be exhausting and costly. Masonry Cosmetics specializes in brick matching through the art of brick staining. But there are steps you should take before turning to brick staining.
The three important components to a successful brick match: size, color and texture.
Brick Color
Color matching doesn't need to be an exact match, but the closer you can get, the simpler, and cheaper, the brick color correction.
Blend - Each brick color that is a part of the blend must be right. For example, if you have a four-way color blend, and three colors match but the fourth does not, you will find that you will still have a poor match that will be obvious even to a casual observer. The wrong color, even in a brick that makes up as little as 20 percent of the overall blend, can create a noticeable difference.
Percentage - Each color must make up the right percentage of the wall. If the original wall consisted of 40 percent dark red, 30 percent light red, 20 percent orange and 10 percent brown, then the new wall must include those same percentages of each color.
Arrangement - The colors must be arranged so as to mirror the way they are spaced and placed in the original wall. If the orange bricks in the original wall never touch each other, but the orange bricks in the new wall are often clumped together in groups, the mismatch will be obvious.
Brick Size
Matching brick sizes is essential for an attractive blend. The mason has a difficult job laying brick when the face heights and lengths of the brick are not compatible. The new wall can look irregular and sloppy, and at times will not line up to the existing wall.
Brick Texture
Texture should not be overlooked. Do your original bricks have a smooth, light, or heavy texture? Matching the original texture of your brickwork can help maintain a consistent look and feel, and makes a drastic difference to the end result.
When to Turn to Brick Staining
Although beginning early and conducting a thorough search will greatly increase your chances of finding a brick match, sometimes the brick is simply unavailable. At other times, you may decide that complex blending is impractical for a particular job. When that happens, consider the only proven permanent brick stain system on the market with a Lifetime Warranty to back it.
To know if your masonry can be stained, you first need to test absorption. Run a simple water test on the brick by throwing some water on the wall. If the water soaks in and darkens temporarily, then our process will work for your project. The second requirement is getting the closest donor brick available (don’t forget size and texture are very important). Smaller color changes can be less expensive than dramatic ones.
Using a proven masonry staining system has many advantages. One is that the product will never hurt the brick or masonry to which it is applied. Another is that it is applied artistically with a brush, one brick at a time, to maximize absorption into the masonry face.
Still another advantage comes from the fact that the stain is translucent. As a result, you can change color, while retaining the natural variations in tone that give brick a natural look. In fact, instead of coating the brick with a single color, the stain actually mixes with the pre-existing colors within the surface to produce the outcome you want.
For example, to make a red brick orange, you do not cover it with an orange coating as you would with a paint or paint-like product. Instead, you add some yellow. Once the yellow is absorbed into the surface and dries, it blends with the pre-existing red color of the brick and creates a new, orange-colored brick.
Then there is placement. The stain specialist can choose the number or percentage of brick to change, what colors to use, and most important, which brick in which positions in the wall will be stained. Every element of the process is under control, which is why it can be so successful in mirroring every aspect of a wall.
Before you choose your brick staining company - please do your research! Ask the company for pictures of jobs lasting 10, 15 or 20 more years. If they can't show you jobs - RUN!
Learn More about Brick Staining
Before you choose a brick staining company - please do your research! Ask the company for pictures of jobs lasting 10, 15 or 20 more years. If they can't show you jobs - RUN! Here at Masonry Cosmetics, we have over 400 case studies of jobs that have stood the test of time. We also have proof of how some of our competitor jobs have held up over the years..
We'd love to talk more about your brick matching issues! Our professional brick staining specialists will talk through your project, and offer advice and assistance. If brick staining is the best solution, we'll work tirelessly for you and your project.