MikeL wrote:
We've been living in a poorly constructed new home for the past 19 months.
After all of the legal maneuvering by the builder not to fix anything,
other than just slapping another coat of paint on it, he think's he's
ready to make a settlement offer.

In meantime, we desire to change the exterior appearance of the house. We
currently have stucco but want a brick facade. Can we overlay the brick
or brick veneer right over the stucco? What would be the benefit of full
brick over brick veneer?

Unless your foundation has a brick ledge, you can't skin the place in
real 'full' brick without expensive alterations at the base of the
walls. By 'brick veneer' I assume you mean the thin slices that are put
up over chicken wire and a mud bed, about like the scratch coat of real
stucco? That is a possibility. If your current stucco is failing, it
needs to come off. The house will look funny otherwise, and stucco
usually fails because water is getting behind it. That won't change just
because brick is over it. The wall needs to be stripped, and any
flashing and drainage problems (usually at the windows) needs to be
fixed. Any damaged wall parts need to be replaced. (especially true if
you have that plastic faux stucco rather than the portland-based kind.)

We can't see your house from here. I suggest asking a few local
bricklayers to come by for a site visit. They can tell you the options
after a few minutes looking around. By the way, any brick applied over a
wood-framed wall is called brick veneer. 'Full brick' is the way they
used to build houses, with a wall 2 or 3 layers of brick thick, and no
wood. The thin brick is often called 'Z-brick', after one of the
original brands. Not sure about what the current term is. Faux brick
would probably work.

There is an alternative- a style of fake brick that hangs on the wall
like shingles, with each row covering the nails of the row below. Seems
to be ideal for retrofit applications like yours, but would likely
require the old stucco be stripped as well, to make the windows and
doors look right, if nothing else.

--
aem sends...