Which is better Vinyl, aluminium siding, brick for home.

I hope you're not basing a house purchase decision on what it is sided with.

You don't side your house with brick. Usually the structure is built with brick, then wood framed inside.

 

[rahvin]

Originally posted by: HappyPuppy
Stucco. Lasts the longest with the least maintenance.

Stucco, a thin concrete finish that can crack and allow water penetration and mold buildup underneath is better than brick? What planet are you from?

Vinyl siding is probably the cheapest most reliable material. The color is embeded so it won't ever need painting, it's inexpensive if it's damaged. Personally I think it looks cheap.

There are going to be two kinds of brick and brick venear, true brick masonry walls are where your trusses (or roof load if you are stick framed) are bearing on the brick. Now depending on where you live this can be an issue as true brick construction (brick is load bearing) is going to be a deathtrap in an earthquake zone.

Brick venear on the otherhand is a conventional wood frame with a brick venear on the outside of the home. The brick is actually usually installed about an inch off the wood framing and anchored to the walls with metal strapping. This provides a small air gap that prevents water from ever touching the wood sheeting and acts as an additional insulative barrier that adds Rvalue to your home. The brick venear has all the advantages of regular brick, ie zero maintenace, fire resistance etc but none of the structural disadvantages.

IMO a brick venear is the best covering, you just have to watch out for the ugly bricks that have been produced in the past. I find it hard to find brick homes that look good to me personally.

 

[silverpig]

Originally posted by: rahvin

Originally posted by: HappyPuppy
Stucco. Lasts the longest with the least maintenance.

Stucco, a thin concrete finish that can crack and allow water penetration and mold buildup underneath is better than brick? What planet are you from?

Vinyl siding is probably the cheapest most reliable material. The color is embeded so it won't ever need painting, it's inexpensive if it's damaged. Personally I think it looks cheap.

There are going to be two kinds of brick and brick venear, true brick masonry walls are where your trusses (or roof load if you are stick framed) are bearing on the brick. Now depending on where you live this can be an issue as true brick construction (brick is load bearing) is going to be a deathtrap in an earthquake zone.

Brick venear on the otherhand is a conventional wood frame with a brick venear on the outside of the home. The brick is actually usually installed about an inch off the wood framing and anchored to the walls with metal strapping. This provides a small air gap that prevents water from ever touching the wood sheeting and acts as an additional insulative barrier that adds Rvalue to your home. The brick venear has all the advantages of regular brick, ie zero maintenace, fire resistance etc but none of the structural disadvantages.

IMO a brick venear is the best covering, you just have to watch out for the ugly bricks that have been produced in the past. I find it hard to find brick homes that look good to me personally.

Stucco totally depends on your climate. People here in Vancouver started using stucco heavily and it now looks like pure sh!t. It gets wet, it turns black, it falls off... It'll work in California or Arizona just fine, but if you get any decent amount of rain forget it.

Aluminum sucks.

Vinyl looks alright.

Cedar works really really well here, I don't know how popular it is in your area.

Brick = good.

 

[Yo Ma Ma]

I think brick is at the top of the list, twigs and straw are just not strong enough.

 

[QuitBanningMe]

Concrete is the absolute best.
Brick is next.

 

[BadNewsBears]

Buy a house with aluminum. Sell the aluminum for scrap, and use fiber cement board siding. Me and pops built our old house and sided the whole thing in it. Lifetime corrosion and insect warranty. And 5 years something else. And use THE BEST quality outdoor PAINT and PRIMER money can buy!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[rahvin]

Originally posted by: silverpig
Stucco totally depends on your climate. People here in Vancouver started using stucco heavily and it now looks like pure sh!t. It gets wet, it turns black, it falls off... It'll work in California or Arizona just fine, but if you get any decent amount of rain forget it.

Aluminum sucks.

Vinyl looks alright.

Cedar works really really well here, I don't know how popular it is in your area.

Brick = good.

There are two kinds of stucco, there is real stucco and fake stucco. Real stucco uses IIRC two layers of concrete and double wire meshing. Fake stucco uses a polystyrene backing with a thin (read less than an 1/8th of inch IIRC) of concrete layered overtop. The problem with fake stucco is that during the late 90s it became extremely popular due to cost but a good percentage of it was installed incorrectly These homes are now developing cracks in the stucco and water is penetrating behind the polystyrene backer into the plywood sheeting. This results in some damned expensive repairs. The other problem with fake stucco is that it's really really easy to damage because there isn't sufficient cement to provide structural strength to the finish. Traditional stucco is a very heavy coat of concreate and had all the benefits of a thick layer of concrete.

Keep in mind that I live in a climate that gets less than 15inches of precipitation a year and people are still getting water damage on the fake stucco around here. I think the stuff looks great but based on what I know about it now I wouldn't touch a home with the finish with a 10' pole.

Personally I wouldn't want any finish that I have to paint. My house is 90% brick with some ceder accents and a tiny bit of siding on the bay windows in the back. I dread the tiny bit of painting I'm going to have to do as I HATE doing exterior painting. And typically anything you have to paint has to be painted every 5 years.

Brick or other stone based finishes are cheaper to insure because they are fire resistant.

 

[DrPizza]

If you're reasonably handy, I wouldn't worry about the exterior of the house. Plus, with a 10x10 lawn, it sounds like you're looking at relatively small houses. Residing a house that size would be a weekend or two project.

Most important thing I looked for in a house was land. I just purchased a small 3 bedroom home. It had no water or heat (taken care of the first two weekends). It's vinyl sided, which means relatively low maintenance; but I have to reside one garage wall because some kid shot about 20 holes in it with a bb gun. I expect that project to cost around $100 - 150. Other than that, maintenance on vinyl siding is just a pressure wash every year in the spring. Oh, and the land: 17 acres. I've got a bigger lawn to mow than 10x10. I believe we're going to keep about 2 acres mowed.

 

[moshquerade]

Originally posted by: DrPizza
If you're reasonably handy, I wouldn't worry about the exterior of the house. Plus, with a 10x10 lawn, it sounds like you're looking at relatively small houses. Residing a house that size would be a weekend or two project.

Most important thing I looked for in a house was land. I just purchased a small 3 bedroom home. It had no water or heat (taken care of the first two weekends). It's vinyl sided, which means relatively low maintenance; but I have to reside one garage wall because some kid shot about 20 holes in it with a bb gun. I expect that project to cost around $100 - 150. Other than that, maintenance on vinyl siding is just a pressure wash every year in the spring. Oh, and the land: 17 acres. I've got a bigger lawn to mow than 10x10. I believe we're going to keep about 2 acres mowed.

if women don't find you handsome at least they can find you handy

 

[DougK62]

My house is brick and I wouldn't have it any other way - it's the best combination of longevity, low maintenance, and good looks.

 

[rh71]

my parents house was brick, didn't really like the looks. I personally prefer the vinyl.

 

[JulesMaximus]

Brick will outlast aluminium or vinyl.

Where are you from anyway? Not the U.S. obviously or originally.

 

[Chadder007]

Originally posted by: motard
Sorry I must clarify. I meant a attached house or a detached house.

As in attached garage??....go with attached. Simply so that if its raining, you don't have to get wet before getting into the car.

 

[shilala]

My wife and I looked at dozens of houses over a period of a year before we bought the house we live in now. There's two ways to get what you want...
1.) Patience.
2.) Build your own.
Lots of times folks settle for a fixer-upper and work on it for a few years, unload it, and get what they really want.

 

[vi edit]

Rahvin pretty much summed up everything.

Assuming you didn't have a total fool of a bricklayer, and you don't live in an earth quake area or near a place that has a lot of mine shafts that can cause your foundation to settle, brick is vastly superior to just about anything else out there.

If done well, stucco looks really nice, but it's only maintenance free in very select areas of the country. Even then it still has to get repainted occassionally to keep looking nice.

 

[DrPizza]

Originally posted by: shilala
My wife and I looked at dozens of houses over a period of a year before we bought the house we live in now. There's two ways to get what you want...
1.) Patience.
2.) Build your own.
Lots of times folks settle for a fixer-upper and work on it for a few years, unload it, and get what they really want.

Some folks find a fixer upper that they want
Personally, I'd far rather either build from scratch, or have to do a lot of work to a house. I gain enjoyment from working on it and the satisfaction of knowing it was done right (or at least the way I wanted) The new house is sort of a fixer-upper... Structurally it's as sound as can be. It needed all new plumbing (done), heating (done), and to be completely rewired (soon to be done, whichever weekend I have spare time AND it's raining).

 

[Fritzo]

brick>vinyl>aluminum.


Aluminum dents and flakes over time.

 

[Fritzo]

Originally posted by: HappyPuppy
Stucco. Lasts the longest with the least maintenance.

Make sure they do it right though....my inlaws house started falling apart because they didn't do it correctly. Cost a cool $10000 to fix

 

[gscone]

Brick...Stucco if its within your budget..

 

[ElFenix]

Originally posted by: SampSon
I hope you're not basing a house purchase decision on what it is sided with.

You don't side your house with brick. Usually the structure is built with brick, then wood framed inside.

is that how they do it in canada? interesting. down here in texas they do the whole wood frame first, then a layer of that foam insulation board, then usually tyvek wrap, then bricks. the bricks aren't load bearing at all.

 

[yoda291]

impenetrable self-sustaining energy shield.

 

[CPA]

Originally posted by: SampSon
I hope you're not basing a house purchase decision on what it is sided with.

You don't side your house with brick. Usually the structure is built with brick, then wood framed inside.

WTF are you talking about? It is totally opposite. The house is built with wood frame and the brick is nothing but a facade. It would not be able to stay up by itself after too long without being attached to the wood frame.


edit: oh, and I have both an attached and detached garage. Workout equipment in the attached, workshop storage in the detached (both are 2 car sized).

 

[DougK62]

I have a detached garage and prefer it like that. I work on cars and stuff in my garage and don't want the fumes/noise in the house. Plus if I goof something up and burn down the garage I won't be homeless.

 

[Kelemvor]

Most homes I see these days (including my own) have brick on the front and vinyl siding on the other 3 sides since you don't normally see them

 

[cavemanmoron]

Originally posted by: FrustratedUser

Originally posted by: motard
Got it. How about detached vs attached, which is better? And why?

I think you want your siding attached to the house.