There may be many factors a home builder uses to determine what type of exterior to apply. Streetside Sales Manager Wendy Jabusch explains, “Often, new areas have architectural controls that might dictate certain finishes and/or colors or a theme. We’ll pick the finishes to work with the theme.”

Some exterior choices include cedar shingles or “shakes,” wooden clapboard, fiber cement siding, oriented strand board, hardboard, veneered plywood, engineered wood, and seamless steel.

Stone exteriors might be the most durable but can be the most expensive. There is also the option of a pre-cast stone veneers that looks and feels like the real thing.

Bricks are expensive but can last for centuries, needing very little maintenance or repair. Brick veneers have a similar finish but lack the longevity of solid brick.

Aluminum siding is an alternative to vinyl, is easy to maintain, and durable. Vinyl siding is made from a polyvinyl chloride plastic and won’t rot or flake.

“There are two types of stucco: regular/conventional or acrylic,” says Ron Levesque of Economy Stucco Repairs. “The old style of traditional stucco has the rock in it – called rock dash. It was popular in the 1970s. The spray-on is called the California dash.” Each has a different look and texture, but the process is the same.

First you have to seal the plywood with paper and tape so there are no openings for the water to get behind the tape. Then you apply a wire mesh, a scratch coat, and last, a finish coating.

Levesque describes, “On a regular 2,000 square foot home, it might take two guys an average two full days just to do the paper and the wire. Then it will take a crew of five guys to apply the first coat of cement on the house in one day. The second day, they apply the second coat. Sometimes you have to apply the two coats all in one day.”

Acrylic stucco might be applied over an inch or two of Styrofoam, which gives the home a good insulation. Then comes the mesh with the acrylic overtop. Acrylic is very durable and hard but may cost twice that of conventional stucco.

Weather greatly impacts the installation of stucco. “If you do it in the rain, all the water you add to your cement scratch coat will actually decrease the strength of your cement.  Because there is colour in the finish coat, if it rains, the colour is going to change right away.

“At zero temperatures, the water in cement will freeze and kill the strength of the cement. After it’s dry, you can just crumble it with your finger and it will turn into sand.” If it’s seven or eight degrees outside, contractors have to determine the wind factor, which may take it to below zero. It takes two to three hours for stucco to settle and dry. If it drops below zero at night, they have to finish the job a couple hours before it gets cold.
While the cost of siding can be about the same as stucco, siding only requires an underlay of paper.  It can also be installed in rain and mild cold temperatures.

Parging is a thin, plaster-like coating of cement-based mortar applied to foundation walls for appeal and durability. Over time, it can start to weather, crack, and fade. If it’s applied too thin, it can crack or break off. That has no impact on the foundation. Parging is purely a cosmetic detail.

“The same material is used in the scratch coat for the parging, but you make the cement thinner,” says Levesque. “It’s applied on the foundation, which is already cement. It’s only cosmetic. A stucco house would look funny if you left your foundation alone: gray and full of little holes on the bottom. That’s why you put a regular texture on it so it looks finished.”

Levesque specializes in matching and aging colours on stucco repairs. Exteriors tend to get weathered with dust, rain, and heat. “It’s not like repairing a door or window.  To be able to match the exact stucco, it takes a lot of time. It’s like not washing your car for three years, washing half of it, then bringing it to the paint shop and have them match the color of the dirty half.”

While curb appeal, durability, and architectural controls are the main factors considered for a home’s exterior, without it, it’s an unwrapped present that will eventually lose its luster.