vinyl/brick siding combination

[Anonymous]

We are looking at buying one of two houses, which were both original brick and had additions put on with vinyl (in one case adjacent to and in the other or on top of the original house). I think it looks bizarre, my spouse thinks it's fine and a fact of life when you're buying an older house that has been renovated over the decades.

How big of a job is it to "harmonize the exterior" of the house (all brick ideally, or all vinyl siding if the former is not feasible) so the house doesn't look so obviously like it has an addition? Who would be the right type of expert to call about this (architect? builder?)

[Anonymous]

I would look into replacing the vinyl with hardboard, and painting the brick to match.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are looking at buying one of two houses, which were both original brick and had additions put on with vinyl (in one case adjacent to and in the other or on top of the original house). I think it looks bizarre, my spouse thinks it's fine and a fact of life when you're buying an older house that has been renovated over the decades.

How big of a job is it to "harmonize the exterior" of the house (all brick ideally, or all vinyl siding if the former is not feasible) so the house doesn't look so obviously like it has an addition? Who would be the right type of expert to call about this (architect? builder?)

If the house were completely brick, you wouldn't likely be able to afford it.

[Anonymous]

Not worth it unless in dis-repair.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would look into replacing the vinyl with hardboard, and painting the brick to match.

dumb idea, don't ever paint brick

[Anonymous]

I'm with your spouse. It looks fine and is a common look for older houses. I would greatly discourage you from painting brick if it's not already painted. Painted brick is hard to maintain and can never be unpainted. New siding in a more modern color might improve the look of the house but it's not cheap (for some reason) so you might want to leave it as a future possibility and not a necessity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would look into replacing the vinyl with hardboard, and painting the brick to match.

dumb idea, don't ever paint brick

I disagree. We painted our brick house and were thrilled with the results. Using good primer and high-quality paint is important. Going on 10 years, holding up great.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm with your spouse. It looks fine and is a common look for older houses. I would greatly discourage you from painting brick if it's not already painted. Painted brick is hard to maintain and can never be unpainted. New siding in a more modern color might improve the look of the house but it's not cheap (for some reason) so you might want to leave it as a future possibility and not a necessity.

The only place I have ever seen the vinyl brick combo is here. It is an atrocious look and screams that there wasn't enough money for brick. I'd hardiplank the vinyl.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would look into replacing the vinyl with hardboard, and painting the brick to match.

dumb idea, don't ever paint brick

Lots of colors of brick are ugly and look much better painted

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm with your spouse. It looks fine and is a common look for older houses. I would greatly discourage you from painting brick if it's not already painted. Painted brick is hard to maintain and can never be unpainted. New siding in a more modern color might improve the look of the house but it's not cheap (for some reason) so you might want to leave it as a future possibility and not a necessity.

The only place I have ever seen the vinyl brick combo is here. It is an atrocious look and screams that there wasn't enough money for brick. I'd hardiplank the vinyl.

It's actually pretty common in the south but I think different from how they do it in the DMV area. You'll find that the entire facing front of the house will be brick or stone and then the other three sides are vinyl. So when you come up to the house from the front, its one unified look but if you approach from the sides or back you see that it isn't really a brick home.

[Anonymous]

Siding the whole house with brick would be very, very expensive. The weight of the brick would also require the construction of a lot of extra structural reinforcement for support.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would look into replacing the vinyl with hardboard, and painting the brick to match.

dumb idea, don't ever paint brick

I disagree. We painted our brick house and were thrilled with the results. Using good primer and high-quality paint is important. Going on 10 years, holding up great.

Yup. DC and Annapolis are full of charming rowhouses with painted brick. My place is painted brick it's gorgeous.

[Anonymous]

I would look into replacing the vinyl with hardboard, and painting the brick to match.

Hate painted brick. I would never buy a house with painted brick.

We have a half brick, half siding house. The brick goes all the way around the bottom and is a nice natural color. We painted the siding in a complementary color (to the brick color) and then used a color that contrasts with the brick for the shutters (and that color is a complement to the siding color). The roof was replaced and matches the brick color. The whole look is fabulous. Roof tiles come in a huge palette these days. We also got the textured (upgrade) roof shingles and it sort of imitates the brick texture on the bottom. So it's a very "put together" look.

I am so, so proud of the curb appeal on our house!

You just have to think about it for a while. Don't rush into painting the brick! It takes some thought, but you can make the house look fantastic. Yes, this took us a while to do ($$), but the house is totally worth it.

[Anonymous]

painted brick screams cheap and make maintenance

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:painted brick screams cheap and make maintenance

So all of those multi million dollar row houses with painted brick in Georgetown look "cheap" to you?