MATERIALS : Side Orders Are Made of Stucco, Metal, Brick

Siding is a big part of any house, usually occupying more square footage than anything else including roofing, windows and doors. In many ways, it’s the face your house presents to your neighborhood and the community.

Several kinds of siding are available:

Stucco

There used to be only Portland cement stucco, but in the past 20 years, a synthetic stucco has come into wide use. Its formula replaces Portland cement with acrylic resins. It’s known as Exterior Insulated Finish Systems (EIFS, pronounced eefs ). The acrylic resins help form a weatherproof surface. The material is troweled over insulated sheathing with mesh fastened to it. EIFS combine durability with good thermal insulation. Their color is blended right into the finish coat, so you don’t have to paint them.

Traditional stucco consists of three coats of a mix containing Portland cement and sand (also called Portland cement plaster). This is applied over wire mesh on sheathing, or the stucco is troweled over concrete block. Properly installed stucco is incredibly durable, but details, such as coat thickness, have a major effect on its durability (the same is true of EIFS).

Although a few hairline cracks are considered inevitable, even on properly installed stucco, major cracking, flaking and delamination are not typical. With either type of stucco, ask your contractor for references on jobs completed more than a year ago, to determine if the jobs have stood up well.

Metal

Metal siding is made from steel or aluminum sheet formed to look like wood siding. It receives a factory-applied coating, and the surface may be smooth or textured.

Aluminum siding is durable, and it will eliminate the need to paint for many years--20 years or longer depending on climate. Its color will fade as it ages, but modern siding has a more durable finish than that installed years ago.

It can be dented, however, by careless placement of ladders or other contact. And, aluminum siding can buckle during heat waves if it’s not properly installed. Steel siding looks like aluminum siding, but it is more dent- and warp-resistant. A drawback is that it will rust if it is scratched to bare steel. These spots must be painted.

Brick

Brick, often used here as an accent rather than as the primary siding, is durable but expensive. It is considered maintenance-free, but sometimes it needs to have efflorescence (minerals that leach from the mortar and brick) cleaned from its surface.

Thin brick siding is made from full-width brick (not plastic or other materials) sliced into thin pieces. This system is useful for brick siding in remodeling jobs where installing regular brick presents structural problems. Thin brick is attached with adhesive or grout.

You have the right to demand good workmanship with any siding, but even more so with brick because it is unforgiving of sloppy installation. Ask your contractor for references of where brick was installed several years ago to determine how the installation has stood up.