Brownstone rear yard extension: Stucco vs. Brick??

We are building a two-floor extension into our brownstone’s backyard, and we are battling between whether to do a finish of stucco vs. brick (to go over the new steel, cinder block and insulation foundation). Benefits of stucco are that it’s more affordable and can be done faster. Brick is aesthetically beautiful, and our architects have been saying that it’s also more durable than a stucco facade – but this is where they diverge from our contractors, who have been mainly doing stucco brownstone extensions over the past 10 years and are pushing for it. We’d welcome advice from anyone who’s had experience in this type of decision as well as these treatments, particularly from contractors and architects. But anyone – we need to break the tie this week!

emmajacob

in Construction 9 years and 4 months ago

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supersouthslope | 9 years and 3 months ago

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@bkbenita I’m curious if you’d recommend your contractors? We’re about to undertake a similar extension and looking for a few good leads. Thoughts appreciated.

stucohen | 9 years and 4 months ago

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using stucco may change the insurance construction classification of your home from brick to frame, causing a possible increase in insurance rates.

Augustiner | 9 years and 4 months ago

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dont listen to the Stucco deniers. A well done 4″ stucco has a great impact for your heating bill. By saving interior insulation you win square footage inside. And the stucco back will look better than anything around you

rh | 9 years and 4 months ago

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The temperature has been so warm, it shouldn’t be a problem if you did it now. You bring up a good point though and you should keep an eye on the weather so they don’t lay the bricks or do any masonry when it’s freezing. Try to keep it over 40-45 degrees.

loveshouses | 9 years and 4 months ago

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Brick….especially if the stucco is eifs type….won’t last. Stucco is indeed faster and cheaper but you get what you pay for in the long run.

emmajacob | 9 years and 4 months ago

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Thanks for all your advice!!

NeoGrec | 9 years and 4 months ago

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Can you save money by doing brick veneer over insulated concrete blocks? It’s real brick, just 3/4″ or 5/8″ thick. It is pointed just like any other brick surface so should be low maintenance going forward. We used thin brick to patch an indentation on our rear wall where an exit door had been covered up. The lack of insulation was causing a nearby water pipe to freeze. Our contractor laminated a rigid foam panel over the “hole” and then did a layer of thin brick to finish. He couldn’t use full size bricks because they wouldn’t have been flush with the surface of the rear wall. It’s an almost perfect match to the rest of the wall and fixed our insulation problem.

slopefarm | 9 years and 4 months ago

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To your question about subbing out, your concern is not that they are subbing out, it is that they have an incentive to sub out cheap. You want them to sub out since they don’t know how to do good brick work themselves. You just want to make sure they bring in someone good. it is possible their estimate for what they would pay a sub is lowball and they would take a bit of a loss for hiring anyone good. Get references for whoever they want to use.

emmajacob | 9 years and 4 months ago

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@rh and @resident2: Question, since it sounds like you both have experience in it: Can brick be laid in the cold months? I know cement can’t be, and the mortar does have some cement elements in it…

rh | 9 years and 4 months ago

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Stucco is the new vinyl siding. I vote for brick. A few years from now when you have to rip off that stucco on the top floors because it’s starting to look like crap, the brick will match. And go with someone who knows what they’re doing.

emmajacob | 9 years and 4 months ago

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@resident2: Yes, I think they’re not bricklayers, although our plans (and bid) always entailed brick; now they’d like to give us a credit if we go with stucco. They would have to sub out this trade, which I think they don’t like doing (most of their work is in-house). Should I be concerned? (I have architects who are CA’ing the construction, who are pushing for brick.) @jfss: The top floors are actually stucco [laid over brick], so a brick extension wouldn’t match. That’s another argument the contractors are giving to do stucco over brick – they’d make it all match. Good to know that brick has treated you well for the past 10 years… Thanks for your thoughts.

snowman2 | 9 years and 4 months ago

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I had that exact decision to make 10 years ago for a 2 story addition to the back of my brownstone. Stucco will require maintenance. Brick is the way to go for no maintenance. I selected a nice slightly varied redish brick, imperfectly formed which looks great with the original brick. I had the brick detailing at the top of the addition match the original house. No regrets. More than worth the additional cost. There are many different ways to go with brick, all of which will be durable. Don’t forget that you will be dealing with 3 elevations.

resident2 | 9 years and 4 months ago

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  ["ID"]=>
  int(181002)
  ["caps"]=>
  array(1) {
    ["bbp_participant"]=>
    bool(true)
  }
  ["cap_key"]=>
  string(15) "wp_capabilities"
  ["roles"]=>
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    [0]=>
    string(15) "bbp_participant"
  }
  ["allcaps"]=>
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  ["filter"]=>
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  ["site_id":"WP_User":private]=>
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}

Your contractors are obviously not brick layers, a very skilled trade.

GreenThinker | 9 years and 4 months ago

string(1) "1"
object(WP_User)#5129 (8) {
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    string(5) "98498"
    ["user_login"]=>
    string(12) "GreenThinker"
    ["user_pass"]=>
    string(34) "$P$BUyWaQ.9zd8QKKjw0tTw.V/FyEYyLC0"
    ["user_nicename"]=>
    string(12) "greenthinker"
    ["user_email"]=>
    string(23) "Moscicki.adam@gmail.com"
    ["user_url"]=>
    string(23) "/forums/users/greenman/"
    ["user_registered"]=>
    string(19) "2017-08-10 14:19:42"
    ["user_activation_key"]=>
    string(0) ""
    ["user_status"]=>
    string(1) "0"
    ["display_name"]=>
    string(12) "GreenThinker"
    ["spam"]=>
    string(1) "0"
    ["deleted"]=>
    string(1) "0"
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  ["ID"]=>
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  ["caps"]=>
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I vote Brick. Looks way better to begin with and in 100 years it’ll look just as good as the day it was laid. Higher resale value too. Stucco 10 years down the line, just looks plain ugly; more so if it’s just flat with no detailing.