Tuesday, April 1, 2008

She's a Brick---- House!

A piece of our asbestos siding fell off today...

and GUESS what was underneath?

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I pulled up a bit of the steel siding that surrounds the bottom of the house (on the other side, to get a representative sample)...

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This makes total sense, as the other 5 identical houses on my side of the street are solid brick. Mine is the only one with siding. I didn't think much about this, because the houses on the OTHER side of the street are NOT brick...they are clapboard style.

It also explains some of the oddities, like the extra deep front door jamb and the very sunken looking windows!

Now, who would put asbestos siding over brick?

It seems to be in good condition... the mortar looks EXCELLENT, as it should since it was protected from the elements for at least 50 years. There are 1x2's nailed into the mortar to hold up the siding, and tar paper over the brick and under the siding.

I'm thinking that it's worth stripping down the house to see... at least remove all of the steel bottom siding to check on the brick's condition. Asbestos abatement is expensive... but I think ending up with a brick house would be worth the expense (we can do it ourself, too, in this state)! Alternately, if the brick is damaged beyond use, it will make a great surface to stucco over, which was an alternate idea for siding this house (lots in the area are originally stucco).

What have you found under your old siding?

9 comments:

Nathan said...

Wow, who does that?!? What an exciting find. Under my siding is wood siding, but it will have to stay that way. $$$ seems to be lacking!

I want lots of photos as you tear it all away. Your house will look so good in brick!

Stephanie said...

No way! So cool! what a happy find. :-)

Joanne said...

What an awesome discovery! I agree with Nate--take lots and lots of pictures.

Anonymous said...

That is way cool! As far as what we found under our siding, Termites!

Anonymous said...

OH WOW!!! I'm so jealous. I wish there were brick under MY asbestos siding! I can't wait to see what you do with it :)

StuccoHouse said...

It makes you wonder what goes through peoples' heads. Why would they bother to have put siding up over brick? Go figure.

modernemama said...

Go for it, it will look fantastic

goddessof4 said...

What a cool discovery!!!! I was excited when I discovered my dressing room was originally painted pink.I had talked about having a pink dressing room (before we had ever been in this house) so when the owner talked about a dressing room attached to the bedroom I wanted this house.It was painted white and while I was painting the room pink I saw that it was once pink before.(Now if I could only find pocket doors LOL)

Amalie said...

So cool! I wish we could just peel off the white paint on our red brick...

I wonder if they did it to conceal the seam from the addition?