Changing Clapboard house into Brick or Brownstone

http://cdn.brownstoner.com/4fc7931e0ff31-.jpg

Hello all.    Is it possible to turn a clapboard wood house into a brick or brownstone house by just changing the facade?  In other words, can the two houses on the left of this pic be transformed into the two houses on right side?  How much would something like that cost?  Has anyone done this?   If you stripped down the facade of a brick, brownstone, and clapboard house, would they all have a basic wood frame underneath or are all three different structurally?  Thanks for your help.

kgate

in Conversion 12 years and 11 months ago

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brokelin | 12 years and 11 months ago

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OK, in the article, the bricks look great on those old frame constructed houses….because the brick was put on the front most likely when the house was originally built (that’s my understanding of the article, anyways), which according to the article was prior to 1852, or  at least added in the 1900’s.  If orginal to the house, that’s why it looks good, it looks not added on later, but part of the original house.  If added on later (which I doubt), if you could make bricks look like they were by put up by nineteenth century masons and weathered in place connected together for over 100 years, yeah, you could get that look…but that is, of course, an impossibility.

bkk | 12 years and 11 months ago

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I agree with original clapboard, I would like to do the same ,and I am pretty sure the original boards are below my hideous asphalt shingles, but I am concerned about cost. Has anyone done this conversion? And if so, what are the costs and potential hurdles of a job like this? (skinny 2 story row house)

m926bk | 12 years and 11 months ago

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OP: Interesting article link.  It looks like those wood frame buildings were either added onto with brick front additions or originally built with load-bearing masonry front portions.  Aside from taking away some of your stoop and front yard and doing a brick front addition (and I have no idea how possible that is),  I agree with some of the posters here that restoring the wood frame house is the way to go.  Fake brick or stucco facades just don’t look right, IMO, but Victorian-like wood frame houses can look fabulous.

BobMarvin | 12 years and 11 months ago

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Brownstones (or limestones) are really brick buildings with a brownstone (or limestone) layer on top–no frame construction except for nterior walls.

kgate | 12 years and 11 months ago

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Thanks for the comments so far.  I agree that an original wood house can be fixed up to look nice, but I was still wondering about the cost and feasibility of brick, and whether any architects have experience with this.  What got me started was the article I’ve linked below, which shows some wood houses with real brick facades (two on Hicks street) that seem to look authentic.  My link is a little circular in that the article links back to an earlier discussion on Brownstoner about this topic.  Incidentally, the pic I posted was on Lorimer street in Greenpoint.   http://woodenhouseproject.com/index.php/2011/09/26/brick-fronted-wooden-houses/

JorgeF | 12 years and 11 months ago

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a brick house and wood frame are different structurally,  this is a link to fiber cement boards with brick pattern this material can be put on a wood frame. I have used this material with smooth solid color finish never with a brick finish / texture so I do not know how it will come out but it is one option. http://www.nichiha.com/prod_brick_panels.htm

wyckoff | 12 years and 11 months ago

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You could transform the two houses on the left into something worth looking at by ripping off that vinyl crap, resizing the windows to their original dimensions, and putting in real wood clapboards with traditional moldings and cornices

callalily | 12 years and 11 months ago

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They are not the same. A brick house has a brick frame. A wood house has a wood frame. Here on the EC that wood frame is sometimes filled with what it is called brick nogging — a bunch of bricks that offer a bit of insulation but play no structural role. So that may be what is confusing you.

rh | 12 years and 11 months ago

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You can add brick facade or stucco but it never looks authentic. A better way of going about it would be to do wood siding with original style molding. Bring the house back to what it looked like when it was built.

coopking | 12 years and 11 months ago

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no