Riding through Bella Vista, QV, and SoSo, I see alot of homes that are having new brick facades added (they install them on the outside of the old bricks). Someone on my street is getting it done as well.

From what I can see of the underlying bricks, there doesn't seem to be anything wrong with the old bricks or the walls.

My question is, why would you spend all of the money to put a new brick facade over a perfectly good one when you could use the money elsewhere to upgrade your house? And why does it seem like alot of people are getting it done now?

-UC

When I was looking at houses in the Grad. Hospital neighborhood, that was a phenominon over there as well. The realtor called it the "Philly facade."

I don't think this practice is structurally sound, b/c you never know when the wall behind the fake facade is going to buckle out, and cause both to come tumbling down.

I've noticed this, too. I actually think the original facades look a lot nicer if they're maintained properly. The newer facades look cheap and low quality to me. [/i]

i bet i did 50 of these fronts over the years and could never figure it out.
most folks put phony orange colonial brick with 1/4 inch joints over the real stuff. the original red brick work has beautiful thin lime and sand joints some times as thin as 1/8 inch. but it beats the hell out of the fake gray ashlar stucco fronts they put in in the 50s. if you walk in queen village,socity hill you can see the scars from nailing the wire to the brick.

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It is an old South Philly tradition, even though i thought the fashion now was to sandblast/restore the old front though some fronts because of past brick work do need a whole new one. Remember we got a alot of bricklayers in S. Philly.

Everyone who lives on a rowhouse block wants to distinguish their house from the others. For all you new to the area, S. Philly residents try to outdo each other in everything. Front, holiday decorations, kitchen, car.
Remember most neighborhoods were once developments. All the houses looked alike. So i guess there was a need to distinguish houses

I live near 10th and Dickinson and when I walk around the neighborhood, I cringe at what's been done to the fronts of so many of the once-charming houses. On most blocks, there are at least one or two with original fronts, and IMO, they are the best-looking houses. My house has nasty fake greenish/brownish brickish looking stucco over the front. It looks horrible. My next door neighbor's house is original. It looks so much nicer than mine. I've stood across the street and compared and wondered why the previous owners actually PAID MONEY to uglify their house. I can't wait until I have the money to remove that stucco.

My brother lived on Tanney Street in Fairmount, and his neighbors did that thing with bits of glass, and tile.....like that one home/storefront on South Street. I'm not sure what it's called.....Think The Painted Bride. Anyway many of the neighbors were mad, but I thought it looked cool.

Anyone notice people getting that aluminum siding that has a diamond print in it? Many homes in Port Richmond used to have it, and Fishtown. I love it, but it looks terrible on a Mayfair house for some reason.

Man, in South Philly you rarely see old brick being cleaned. Tons and tons of new brick over the old stuff. It also seems fake, concrete keystones over the windows are quite popular now. Ick.

What I really hate is that multicolored, textured brick. It looks so horrible, I can't imagine why anyone does it. I also assume it costs a ton. Am I wrong?

For the same reason they'd spend $70K to buy a Hummer H2 when they never leave the city...









They're dipshits. :roll:

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"You know Americans are cocky sons of bitches when, in a firefight, we fire TOW missles at a target, and everybody will stop shooting to cheer."

steve, how about the brownstone on 9th and Dickinson. its painted gray, that's bad, real bad. you should have seen it 20yrs ago.

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And so it was that later
as the miller told his tale
that her face, at first just ghostly,
turned a whiter shade of pale


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