What is the cultural significance of different house exterior materials?

[u/Limp-Stone]

Hello American pals, thank you for being so helpful with my question about porch life! I'm an absolute convert, I wish I could have a porch. Please do let me know if I'm asking too many questions, I'm trying to limit it. I could honestly be here all day asking all about your architecture.

What do you think of different home exteriors, like brick, stone, siding, shingle, stucco etc? What do you think looks nice? What do you think of as aspirational? Are different things indicative of different socio-economic classes, states or types of people? What do you see the most of in your local community? Are the houses you see typically made out of multiple materials, like siding with stone accents and stucco near the roof or something? Do you like that, or would you prefer a house made out of all the same material?

Also, if you have a shingle house, is the roof made of the same shingle or is it a different colour or somthing? Do you even get houses that are entirely shingle, or is it just to add a pop of texture to a section of the house?

Thank you!

[u/GoodbyeForeverDavid]

Former homebuilder and land developer here.

Exterior materials are largely a function of 1.) the time period it was constructed, 2.) the climate in which it was constructed, 3.) the cultural and economic influences, 4.) the location (urban, suburban, or rural), 5.) the relative prevalence or scarcity of materials and their substitute goods.

Of course all of these influence each other.

[u/Help1Ted]

It’s really just location dependent. I’m in Florida and we basically have concrete block or wood framed houses. And either can be covered in stucco. Concrete block, at least where I live seems more common. Brick, stone or even paneling just isn’t as common here. Even a fake stone facade is something you might see, but not as common. What’s interesting is when I drive north you start to see houses made of different materials. I’m in Central Florida, but northern Florida you can start to find houses with paneling and even some shingle homes. Then around Georgia you might start to notice more brick houses, at least on the front facing side of the house. Then farther north you’ll see mostly paneling with some actual brick homes and less stucco.

[u/Limp-Stone → u/Help1Ted]

Cool! Do you think that's a temperature thing? Or is it like something to do with the areas, like when the houses were built or who they were built for or something?

[u/Help1Ted → u/Limp-Stone]

I think it’s all of the above. Weather is a big factor. But it’s more what’s available locally. Cheaper and easier to find and use. It’s still common to find new concrete block homes. Especially for the first floor or even part of the second floor. We have some strict building codes in Florida. But you can basically use whatever materials you want, they just need to meet or exceed those codes. Other areas concrete block wouldn’t work as well, like areas prone to earthquakes.

[u/FeatherlyFly]

I'm in Massachusetts. Outside of a few dense areas with row houses, (mostly Boston/Cambridge) wood shingles or slats or siding made to look like wood dominate. Usually painted, once in a while bare cedar shingles. But I've never seen bare cedar slats. 

When there are row houses, they're mostly brick for historic fire prevention. Modern builds in those areas are more likely to be concrete and steel, probably a high rise, and fire prevention is more likely to depend on sprinklers and architectural encapsulation than on brick and stone. 

The reason is that wood is cheap, common, and easy to work with, both historically and today. So we never had a reason to switch to a different material except in a few locations. 

Roofs are almost always asphalt shingles. Once in a while you'll get cedar shingle, slate shingles, or metal roofs. But asphalt is cheap and lasts 20-30 years with minimal maintenence, plus shingle roofs are traditional around here. 

You do see some McMansions with stone or brick facings over part of the front of the house, purely for cosmetics, but even those are frequently wood or wood look everywhere else. 

Edit - Locally, if I was going to go aspirational I'd go with shaped shingles and a slate roof for my own aspirational but imaginary house.  Most shingles are rectangles, flat at the bottom, but if you're willing to pay more (and shingles are already an expensive choice), you can get shingles shaped like a diamond at the bottom, or rounded, or octagonal, and they can be placed in cool patterns (the gables of https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr._Frank_Davis_House), or use different colors and make a picture from shingles. Or for a modern touch, you can get them laser cut and laid out to form an actual picture on a wall (https://www.reddit.com/r/DesignPorn/comments/wxy2b0/shingle_art_cape_cod_national_seashore/).

 For more generically aspirational, google McMansion. 

[u/Limp-Stone → u/FeatherlyFly]

That's such a gorgeous house, I had no idea shingle could be so creative! And those spandrels! I didn't realise that you guys could just build wooden houses relatively safely because your houses are usually standalone, but that makes sense. I'm not sure I've ever seen a wooden house in my life. I kind of assumed that your houses were just made to look like they're wooden because it's pretty. Thank you so much for your helpful explanation!

[u/FeatherlyFly → u/Limp-Stone]

As an American, I think I was an adult before I learned that the brick houses in Europe aren't brick facing over wood because I'm so used to wood as the structural material for homes. 

[u/FeatherlyFly → u/Limp-Stone]

Here's a typical American house being built, exterior only, I'm afraid. https://youtu.be/TEARy5Vk4vY?si=lQr5mGSPuqUsWxCK

[u/Impressive-Weird-908]

Im in Baltimore and the brick row home is common. An interesting thing to look for with these homes is “FormStone”, which is basically a layer of synthetic material that was applied to the outside of some homes to be more durable than regular brick. It looks ugly but some people, including my landlord, still keep them around.

[u/Limp-Stone → u/Impressive-Weird-908]

Woah!! I'm looking at pictures of formstone and it's crazy, I've never seen anything like it! I always wondered why American stone houses looked slightly off to me. It's like pebbledash for America, unless you guys also have pebbledash.

[u/Trick_Photograph9758]

Housing materials don't matter as much as location and quality of the house. You can have a multimillion dollar house made out of any material, depending on where the house is, and how much the owner paid for it.

[u/Timmoleon]

Vinyl plank is kind of the default for houses and small apartment buildings more recent than WWII here in the Midwest. I don’t really think of it as beautiful or ugly, just there. It’s a fraction of the price of most siding. Brick veneer is better looking, but not more functional; it’s not uncommon on private houses, and very common for government buildings. I’ve seen houses with only one brick wall, or brick for the first few feet and a different siding above- I prefer the second. I’ve visited Latin American cities where most houses have brick walls or veneer- it doesn’t look bad, but not like high-end brick work. I think stucco looks nice, but it isn’t common in my area.  One mansion I worked was going to get a copper roof, which probably looks nice. Slate seems like a slightly more attainable luxury option to me.  I haven’t seen many houses with shingle siding, but those that do have larger shingles of their chosen color for siding, and the roofs have typical black roof shingles.