portable spectrophotometer

I need help on a project that has been lingering in my closet for long and my 
not having any idea what to do about getting it moving. I found a website 
that said "portable spectrophotometer" and considered that possibly this 
would provide relief if only it was not a UK site. Does anyone have 
experience with such an instrument?

Park Slope, Brooklyn, in 1998, after five years of on/off negotiation we 
finally got a NYC Landmarks permit and contract to coat the brownstone/stucco 
exterior of a 4 story "brownstone" with ProSoCo BMC. Between the time we got 
the permit & contract ProSoCo changed their color selection & numbering 
system. I don't know how many times one of us drove down to look at this one 
building… but we were getting kind of tired of the back n' forth for a small 
project that took forever to turn into a contract. When confronted with the 
need to immediately order the coating material I selected the closest 
brownstone brown on the new chart to the one that had been on the old chart. 
I mean, we are NOT matching any existing brownstone as the façade is 100% 
stucco… so who should care if it is an exact match to stucco? I get confused 
when trying to make fake non-historic material to be preciously historic. 
Neglecting to read the fine print of the NY Landmarks permit we went ahead 
and coated the façade. I thought it was an excellent job well done. 

Then we got a notice that we were in violation of Landmarks because the 
coating is darker than the adjoining STUCCO facades. We fussed about it until 
it was pointed out that the permit said that we were to apply samples for 
approval. Great!

The owner loves the job. On the subject of the darker color their comment was 
that they thought it would fade in time. I informed them that we had used a 
good product that would not noticeably fade. We felt obligated to do 
something to satisfy Landmarks. So we meet between the owner & Landmarks at 
the site and came up with another standard BMC color to apply. The contract, 
which the permit was based on, was stipulated on using standard colors. Two 
colors were agreed on for mock-ups. We requested from ProSoCo samples of the 
two colors. When we received the two colors our supervisor went to the site 
and applied the mock-ups, reporting back that there seemed to be something 
odd about the colors. Turned out that though each quart can was labeled with 
a different color that neither can contained pigment. In the mean time, being 
optimistic, I informed the Landmarks staff to check out the mock-ups. They 
were not impressed either with the mock-ups, or understandably, with having 
to make the site visit. I then went to the site and realized there was a 
problem. We then went through a different set of channels w/ ProSoCo, always 
trying to expedite the next phase of problem solving, and received the 
promised standard colors, which were applied. The mock-ups proved to be too 
light and nothing like what was expected from the color card. I then spent 
several hours on the site by myself playing with color cards and trying to 
come up with a color that would best match the stucco facades on either side 
of the building. I don't consider myself a terrible judge of color, just that 
I am a bit of a could give a ….. about exact matches of color as I consider 
color to be subjective and in the head of the beholder… that is, until I hear 
about a portable spectrophotometer. 

Regardless, I came up with the best match that I could to blend between the 
brown of the sand aggregate and the pinkish tan of the cementing matrix of 
the stucco… standing with your face 6 inches from the stucco the color 
problem is different than standing across the street. I'll be damned if we 
are going to speckle coat the facade to resemble sand grains. We then 
procured a sample of this custom color which I applied myself this time. The 
comment of Landmarks staff, over the phone, is that it is on the pink side, 
can we get a closer match?

That about did me in. What the hell is pink? The project has been sitting 
idle with the dark brownstone with several square mock-up swatches for the 
whole season. We have not received any payment as we consider the project not 
completed. The customer is happy so they don't call us. Landmarks is busy. 
The job has gotten lost in the shuffle and is no longer carried on our 
current project list. Is there a way to determine an objective measure of 
color match without reliance on human intervention of taste and decorum? HELP!

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