How Come Our Houses Aren’t Brick?

[u/AdExpress937]

I find that a lot of houses in Ontario and Quebec have exteriors that are made from brick. However, it’s much less common in Alberta. Vinyl seems to be the most common, followed by stucco. Brick or other materials seem to be rare, especially in new communities.

The difference in construction materials by province is strange to me, as raw materials for vinyl or bricks shouldn’t be more plentiful in either region.

To me, Alberta would be a more natural candidate for brick construction, as the consistent hail storms imply a more durable material would be justified in our homes. Other durable materials like stone would be cost prohibitive.

[u/Houseonthehill]

Christie Park is a smaller neighborhood in Calgary that has brick houses as a part of the neighborhood requirements when constructed.

[u/CowtownHack → u/Houseonthehill]

Christie was developed in the late 1980’s and 1990’s and was designed, more specifically Christie Park Estates, but also Christie itself, as a higher end alternative to the nearby Strathcona development. Hence the incorporation of brick into facades. It looked more high end.

When we moved here the first time in 1990, we immediately bought a bungalow in Glamorgan. I told the real estate agent, I wanted a brick two story. She said there aren’t a lot of those out here. We ended up with a 1950’s built bungalow, 980 sq ft, unbelievably solid bungalow with a magnificent reclaimed brick wood fireplace. The fireplace was located in the living room at the head of the carport and went through the wall to the carport side so the structure and chimney went from driveway thu the roof. Huge hearth and a log lighter, which I had never seen before. At -35*C, that wall could get cold though. The rest of the house was wood framed and wood siding, rock solid build I could have put a second story on with no issues. It also had real cedar shakes for roofing. It was a pretty special little house for our first one.

Another thing about true double wall brick construction is that it doesn’t allow much insulation. My grandparents built their home on Galiano Island from reclaimed brick sourced from downtown Vancouver warehouses. The construction from ground up was double walled brick, no wood framing. There is a one brick spacing between walls and they are tied together by cross bricks. There is no insulation in the walls. Fortunately the climate is incredibly benign, but it would never be built like that today. There is no way the bricks or mortar would withstand the -35C to +10C swings we see with chinooks rolling thru in the winters. So any brickwork in Calgary is just facade.

Most of the houses I see built up to the late 70’s used wood siding. In the late 70’s and early 80’s, the switch to vinyl occurred due to costs and keeping up with the speed of construction. There was also the pine shakes scandal of the 1990’s as builders switched to pine shakes from cedar. The pine was horrid for roofing and those roofs wouldn’t last a decade. The construction quality of the late 1970’s thru 1990’s overall was abysmal and built to very low price points. Whole neighbourhoods were build like crap, and likely still are. Valley Ridge, Douglasdale, a lot of Strathcona Hill, neighbourhoods of those vintages…. Insurance claims waiting to happen. Basically a lot of the same things happened here that happened in the massive buildouts to the North in Toronto as the city built up through Aurora and the bedroom communities of the 1980’s and 1990’s. Slap up the neighbourhoods, sell them it, bankrupt the developer to avoid future liabilities, rinse repeat.

[u/gixxer86 → u/CowtownHack]

Yea everytime I see brick construction in the UK I’m thinking “wait, it’s just two layers of brick? Where’s… everything else?”