stucco vs brick

[Audiogenic]

it's more expensive to stucco an existing house than rebrick it.

[Kenneth]

Google failed you. Brick is actually much more expensive than stucco. For most new homes, brick is an upgrade from stucco.

Ottawa and the suburbs have the oddest new home subdivisions (well outside of the Atlantic).

Brick is an upgrade, having gutters is an upgrade, having copper pipes is an upgrade, there is no underpad in carpetted areas; another upgrade; casement windows is an upgrade.

The subdivisions don't have concrete curbs plus they're poorly lit. If a developer tried any of these things in Toronto or Calgary they'd be out of business within days.

[deep]

Ottawa and the suburbs have the oddest new home subdivisions (well outside of the Atlantic).

Brick is an upgrade, having gutters is an upgrade, having copper pipes is an upgrade, there is no underpad in carpetted areas; another upgrade; casement windows is an upgrade.

The subdivisions don't have concrete curbs plus they're poorly lit. If a developer tried any of these things in Toronto or Calgary they'd be out of business within days.

Wow. I'm amazed they can get away with that anywhere.

[Bordello]

Yeah, the developers here in Ottawa like to take alot of shortcuts. I'd like to see Mike Holmes get his hands on one of their homes. One house is probably enough to last an entire season. The biggest developer here is Minto. They're a pretty shady company. I think they have operations in Toronto too.

All those things you listed are upgrades, but I'm pretty sure that gutters are standard though.

Ottawa and the suburbs have the oddest new home subdivisions (well outside of the Atlantic).

Brick is an upgrade, having gutters is an upgrade, having copper pipes is an upgrade, there is no underpad in carpetted areas; another upgrade; casement windows is an upgrade.

The subdivisions don't have concrete curbs plus they're poorly lit. If a developer tried any of these things in Toronto or Calgary they'd be out of business within days.

[Kenneth]

I think they have operations in Toronto too.

All those things you listed are upgrades, but I'm pretty sure that gutters are standard though.

I know someone with a detached Minto home in Kanata (3 years old); no gutters. The only upgrade is for multi-section gutters and not the single rolled which is common place. I know they try to push as many detached homes at a lower price point (you don't see as much semis/towns as you see in Toronto; but there are way too many shortcuts.

Minto is mainly a Condo developer in the GTA; yet here there quite upscale. Marble entry ways, granite countertops, hardwood floors, all standard.

[kgeorge78]

Where are u people getting your info from????

A High Quality Stucco job is much more expensive then brick.
I am currently building a house and I'm going with stucco.

Beige Stucco ext with a nice dark brown trim and band. Also added 3 feet of stone on the bottom all the way around and up the front entrance (Arch)

The Exterior (Stone / Stucco) combo is costing me $42,000
(26 stucco, 18 for the stone (9g to buy and 9g to install)

Brick Exterior would have costed $20,000 installed.


Stucco looks amazing and is actually great in our climate - The 1 1/2" Styro. around the house acts as extra insulation.

[CheapScotsman]

I wonder how the cost of brick (which there isn't much of here on the westcoast) or stucco compares to either

a) hardiplank (a fiber cement siding with 50 year warrantee ... http://www.jameshardie.com/homeowner...hardiplank.php) or

b) SmartSide (engineered siding with a 30 year warrantee ... http://www.lpcorp.com/lpsidingproduc...lapsiding.aspx)

[diggler649]

Stucco keeps your house warmer in the winter and colder in the summer because of the extra layer of foam which acts as insulation. The disadvantage if stucco is you have to clean it once in awhile and is more fragile than brick.

[gladiator1942]

my new home build will have a stone and stucco front exterior and brick exterior for the rear and side. The sales rep told me that mosts espensive houses and expensive houses in europe use stucco. i didn't really buy that argument but the elevation I wanted only had that as the exterior.

I did some research on the internet and found for the most part this is true. that stucco is more expensive.

but for the past year i've been driving to work in midtown in toronton, so i sometimes drive through the streets in the bridle path area and the bayview york mills area. this area has some pretty expensive homes. some of the house in the bridle path and certain enclaves in the area have huge multi million dollare mansions and homes. and they almost all of them have stucco exterior for the entire house. and looking at these homes, they really beautiful homes and you can't help but to imagine the cost and the size of the houses. i also notice that there are not a lot of huge all brick homes in this ritzy part of north york. and now that i see it, a huge all brick home would look ugly compared to a huge all stucco home.

so i now appreciate the look of stucco exteriors. done right, it does look better than brick.

[speedysa]

Stucco will never outlast brick. We'll see an increase of stucco repair guys in 10-20 years! There is no replacment for a solid brick house!

[fieldhousehandyman]

All things being equal, I love the look of both brick, and stucco, provided the finish is suited to the architecture of the house. I have a 120 year old double brick Italinate in cream/buff brick, that may possibly need to have the entire outer brick wall replaced in the next 100 to 150 years or so. There are no mortar issues or brick issues whatsoever at the moment. I am not certain if modern brick has life expectancies of 200 to 250 years or more, but I would actually imagine better built brick homes might.

Modern 'stucco' finishes are quite different from traditional 'stucco', and are a modern engineered cement, sand, lime and acrylic mix, vastly superior to stucco that was installed in canada prior to the 1990's. The life expectancy of traditional stucco finishes could be as low as 10 years, and would typically not exceed 25 to 50 years unless one was really lucky. The 'new stuff' if properly installed and applied has the potiential of having a useful life expectancy of between 50 and 100 years or so.

[coolspot]

... and stucco makes your place look like a Taco Bell.

Depends on the architecture of the house and the area. Some stucco houses look quite nice.

[patrob]

Ottawa and the suburbs have the oddest new home subdivisions (well outside of the Atlantic).

Brick is an upgrade, having gutters is an upgrade, having copper pipes is an upgrade, there is no underpad in carpetted areas; another upgrade; casement windows is an upgrade.

The subdivisions don't have concrete curbs plus they're poorly lit. If a developer tried any of these things in Toronto or Calgary they'd be out of business within days.

Tell me about it

And now they have "group buys for eavestroughs"

[will888]

All brick construction in every home is a southern Ontario thing. In areas like the prairies where brick is hard to come by, stucco is the finish of choice. If done properly, the look is fantastic. Durability is not a concern, although I would agree that brick would last longer.

[EugW]

I guess I'm the only one here with cedar wood siding. Personally I think it looks the best, but I'd be fine with stucco, brick, or stone (or cement) too, if done tastefully and appropriate for the type of house. I don't like vinyl siding much though.

The part about being tasteful and appropriate is key… I visited one house that all sorts of nice finishes that were reasonably good quality, and the exterior was done in stone. All together, it looked pretty mediocre unfortunately, because it seemed it was designed by a contractor with little grasp of aesthetics.