Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
It's because of historical building methods going back to colonial days. New England has always had all the ingredients necessary to make brick. It also has a ton of stone, evidenced by all the stone walls everywhere. But when early settlers arrived, most came from East Anglia in England. Look around that area even today and you'll see a lot of wood construction. People in New England simply built houses the way they knew, and the way their parents and grandparents did. It also helped that there was a lot of lumber available. Over the years, timber framing construction became very common in New England (think the big, thick joists and beams of a real colonial house or barn). It was called joinery and it was a skill. Later, in the nineteenth century, as balloon and platform framing became popular in the rest of the country, timber framing still remained in wide-spread use across New England. It was a tradition. Really, the only places you see brick in New England is in cities, where fire code sometimes required it. Or where someone wanted to show off their wealth and build a brick house. Because wood construction was so common in New England for centuries, as those houses were remodeled later, it was cheaper to encase them in vinyl. That's why you see more vinyl there today.
On the other hand, back in colonial days, the Mid-Atlantic and especially the South were settled by people who came from areas with traditions of brick construction. Again, they built what they knew. Also, the south had a more aristocratic culture, always trying to compete with each other. Expensive brick was a good way to show off wealth. Puritan New England didn't do that. Look at some old southern plantation mansions and a lot of times you'll notice they used complex brick patterns that used more bricks than necessary. They were just showing off: see how much brick I can afford. A lot of times they only did so on the public-facing fronts of houses.
Historical building traditions is also why you usually see more stone construction in Pennsylvania and the Mid-Atlantic, because of the German influence.
I'm in Massachusetts here and pretty much all of our houses are vinyl siding. I didn't even know brick houses were a thing. Then I visited Tennessee and saw them everywhere. At first, they kind of looked weird to me, but they're kind of growing on me.
So, what is it about vinyl siding, that makes them such a good choice for the northeast? And what is it about brick houses, that makes them the superior choice for other parts of the country?
And as long as we're on the topic of brick and vinyl siding, please feel free to share any related thoughts or experiences you've had with these!
There isn’t one house on my street in Massachusetts with vinyl siding. I’m in the land of cedar shingles and painted clapboard. Here, vinyl is used on Section 8 housing and low value older single family homes to contain the lead paint and asbestos where it would be too expensive to remove the old siding using tents & hazmat suits and pay big bucks to dispose of the hazardous waste. Brick isn’t used mostly because it is a really lousy thermal barrier. Energy costs are really high and you’re going to use materials that are going to save your expensive heating bill.
Vinyl tends to be more popular in winter weather climates for its four-season durability. Older versions of vinyl tend to be the worst, functionally and aesthetically. I've seen newer versions that look quite nice and mimick wood much more effectively. However, I do agree that HardiPlank looks a bit more refined than vinyl, and that is catching on quickly in the Northeast as a vinyl alternative.
Aesthetically, I'm most partial to the texture and color of brick (and stone), but living in New England you also see many quite stunning clapboard homes.
One exterior material I'm glad is dying off is synthetic stucco/EIFS. That seemed to be more common in the Mid-Atlantic, although I believe it's still prominent out West. Just a very tacky-looking finish to it, and not to mention super prone to moisture damage.
It’s also the norm now here in New England to replace wood trim with Azek. Most high end new construction is using it. Cosmetically, you can’t tell it’s not wood trim and it doesn’t rot. It would be really hard to sell a home with vinyl siding in my zip code since it screams poverty. You’d have to discount the price since the buyer is going to rip it off. You wouldn’t have that problem with HardiPlank on a colonial. Fiber cement siding would look pretty strange on a coastal cape, though.
St. Louis was initially constructed of wood. After the 1849 fire that destroyed most of St. Louis, the city passed an ordinance that buildings had to be constructed with brick to make them more fire resistant. That is why there is a huge inventory of brick homes there dating back to the 1800s and early 1900s. There were clay mines west of the city (then) and local brickworks were able to supply the materials. The fire insurance companies probably had a role in tipping the scales toward brick.
Actually, I got started reading and thinking about this cause I am looking at buying a house, and my real estate agent warned me that it's done with EIFS. Just how bad is this EIFS moisture problem? How does it happen on EIFS but not on brick or vinyl?
EIFS itself is just fine. Today EIFS is installed in a rainscreen system, so water travels along a drainage plane behind the finish.
80s EIFS was installed differently...
Quote:
Originally Posted by thebruiser500
Could you please explain this part more. Like, if the brick weren't used as a veneer, would there be many layers of brick? What do they put behind the veneer that serves the functional purpose? Wouldn't even one layer of brick work to protect a house from cold, heat, wind, rain and water?
(I am just curious about how houses are built and wish to learn more)
Brick veneer is thin brick, usually 1/2" thick, directly applied to sheathing over wood studs.
A standard brick would be a double wythe wall with full bricks on the outside wythe (usually with wood studs on top), an air space, and a stud wall on the interior wythe.
A traditional brick wall would be a double wythe wall with each wythe being brick.
Quote:
Originally Posted by thebruiser500
How would brick keep the house cooler in the summer? I am reading that it has a "high thermal mass" so it can absorb all the energy from the sun and radiate it through the house.
High thermal mass means slow heat transfer. It warms up from the exterior in in the sun, so at night it radiates that head inside while "absorbing" cold from the exterior in. So in the morning at sunrise, the inner face of the brick is cold and radiates cooling into the house while the exterior warms.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Creekcat
Keep looking, you'll find a some old aluminum siding out there, I'm sure.
I looked at a house in California with asbestos siding
I recently looked at a house in New England that had aluminum clapboard siding
I'm in Massachusetts here and pretty much all of our houses are vinyl siding. I didn't even know brick houses were a thing. Then I visited Tennessee and saw them everywhere. At first, they kind of looked weird to me, but they're kind of growing on me.
So, what is it about vinyl siding, that makes them such a good choice for the northeast? And what is it about brick houses, that makes them the superior choice for other parts of the country?
And as long as we're on the topic of brick and vinyl siding, please feel free to share any related thoughts or experiences you've had with these!
Are you talking new construction? Boston, like many large northeast cities, has a lot of brick buildings. Most are older but they are there.
From what I see in Massachusetts, most homes have wood siding, either wood shingles or clapboards. New construction has vinyl that mimics wood clapboard. That’s for ease of maintenance. That’s true in Tennessee too though so I’m a bit confused what you are talking about. Jay
Plenty of homes in the south and west have brick on the front and vinyl on the sides and back, though on newer homes, vinyl has the same class connotations, and fiber cement has become more popular in the past 15 or so years.
The Northeast was covered with huge forests that had to be cleared to start farming. Most of the land is on igneous rock, so deposits of brick clay are rare. Thus, wood frames and wood siding/shingles/clapboards. Vinyl is just a cheap modern simulation of wood.
Much of the South is coastal plains or near such. Vast amounts of sedimentary rock everywhere. Deposits of brick clay are everywhere. So, as soon as settlers could look up and afford to go with a more durable, maintenance-free building material, they went to brick.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
