Homes with bricks on 3 side (Houston: insurance, new home, neighborhood)

[vutekho]

Why do most homes in Houston only have bricks on 3 sides? Is it for cost saving, looks, preference??? I didn't expect to drive through what appears to be a an upscale community, only to see vinyl on the rear of most homes with an elegant front design.

It seems only homes north of $275k have bricks on all sides. I personally feel the vinyl on the rear of the house is an eyesore, and takes away the appeal of a neighborhood. Kind of like a car with with a trunk painted in green, when the rest of it is red. At first I thought it's fine because no one will see the back of the house, but that is far from true.

Is the option of adding brick to the 4th side that much more?

[War Beagle]

A few thousand more (for a one story anyway). I'd rather spend that few thousand on something else since I am fine with hardie plank.

[eastontracks]

I agree. It is an eyesore. I wouldn't buy any house that looks like that. I notice a lot of newer homes in new subdivisions that almost all seem cookie cutter. I notice after 5-10 years those homes don't look as nice as before with the wood changing color.

[Bad Haggis]

Are you sure it is vinyl or even wood? Cement fiber board (Hardi plank) looks a lot like wood. Hardi is fine as long as you keep up with the paint maintenance. This has been used for years and the cookie cutter style has been around for decades.

[jasonamd]

I wouldn't call such homes an eyesore. Seems to be a pretty common thing. We had the option to have brick on the back of our home when built for an extra $3,500. We chose not to in order to stay within our monthly payment budget we had come up with.

Seriously doubt new homes are being built with vinyl or even wood siding. Most all are hardi plank which lasts forever and just needs to be painted. Insurance companies consider it masonry as well...so a 3 sides brick, one side hardi plank is considered 4 sides masonry.

[trbstang]

It is just a cost savings in most of the lower priced homes. Considering that many of the people buying them are probably streatching to get the home as it is, another $3-4K for brick is not worth it to them. FWIW, a majority of the homes in our neighborhood came standard with hardi plank on the front porch. Crazy, I though. So we paid the extra $2K to have it done in brick. Luckily the rest of the house was already brick, and this was a $200K home in a $165K-$250K neighborhood.

[hbcu]

some areas won't let them add brick outside of the standard look..but from driving behind a community it really paints a picture as all brick homes add a way different look than hardi plank on 3 sides

[lhafer]

In our first home, adding brick to the back was an option we chose to do. Hardi plank and siding require upkeep (washing, painting, replacing, etc). Brick does not. I would absolutely spend the extra money to put brick on the back if it were an option. I don't care for the way 3 sided brick homes look.

[Schumacher713]

Cost and this is done on million dollar homes. Though they use hardie board. I like the look personally. Well if it is broken up right.

[Komeht]

The brick is veneer - You can add or subtract as you like - it's not structural at all.

If you want a brick house that is all masonry construction, that's entirely different and not done by any production builder.