Posted by Buying or fixing up an older home is a different beast than working on new construction. There’s stuff you have to think about that newer houses just don’t make you deal with. And one of the biggest decisions you’ll face is what to do with the exterior.
Whatever’s on there now (siding, stucco, brick) has been weathering for 60, 80, sometimes 100 years. You’re basically choosing between restoring what’s already there or swapping it for something new. Both options have real tradeoffs. Cost, lifespan, how much maintenance you’re signing up for, whether the result actually fits the style of the house. So let’s walk through it.
Keeping what’s already there
If your house has original cement stucco, real brick, or solid wood siding and it’s still in decent shape, restoring it is almost always the way to go. The material’s already proven itself for that climate and that building. Replace it and you lose a lot of the character that probably drew you to the house in the first place.
Restoration isn’t free though. You’re paying for cleaning, crack repair, patching damaged areas, fresh protective coating. But almost always it costs less than full re-cladding. And you get to keep the original look intact.
The trick is finding someone who actually knows the original system. Not everybody does. This Old House has a detailed comparison of common siding materials that’s worth skimming if you want a feel for the differences before you start collecting estimates.
What to do with original stucco
Traditional hard-coat stucco is a three-layer cement system applied over wire lath. Done right, it lasts 50 years or more. Plenty of homes around Montclair built before 1960 still have their original stucco walls, and a lot of them are doing just fine.
If the stucco’s sound, you usually just need targeted repairs and a fresh elastomeric topcoat. If you’ve got sections that are loose, bulging, or saturated with water, those need to come out and get replastered. Patching with the right material and matching the existing texture takes real skill, which is why hiring an experienced stucco contractor in Montclair matters way more than picking the lowest bid.
One thing to avoid: do not cover original stucco with vinyl or fiber cement unless the wall underneath has been remediated first. Trapping moisture under new cladding is a classic mistake. Causes problems that take years to show up but cost a fortune to fix.
Old brick and masonry
Original brick on a pre-war home? Almost always worth keeping. The bricks themselves last centuries. What fails is the mortar between them, not the brick.
Repointing’s the standard fix. Old mortar gets ground out to a consistent depth. New mortar goes back in. The catch is picking the right mortar. Modern Portland cement mortar is too hard for old brick. It actually causes the brick faces to spall over time. A lime-based mix that matches the original is what you want. Not all masons know this, by the way. Worth asking.
And if you’ve got a chimney, parapet, or retaining wall in old brick, get those checked before they start causing water problems somewhere else on the house.
When you really do need to replace
Sometimes restoring just isn’t the play. Years of deferred maintenance, water damage behind the walls, somebody’s bad repair from 1987. Sometimes you’re left with a wall that’s not worth saving.
In that case you’ve got options. Fiber cement gives you a wood look without the upkeep. EIFS gets you better thermal performance than old-school stucco. New hard-coat stucco buys you another 50 years of the same look you had before.
Each one has implications for the rest of the house though. Adding insulation behind new cladding changes the wall assembly. That affects ventilation, how moisture moves, even how the house heats and cools. These aren’t price-shopping decisions. Get the cheap option and you might be solving one problem while creating three more.
Get more than one opinion
Anyone who walks up to your house and immediately says rip it all off. That’s not your guy. Good exterior pros start with an actual inspection. They figure out what’s failing and why. Then they give you options ranging from minimal repair all the way up to full replacement.
Get at least two or three estimates. Read them carefully. The lowest bid is almost never the right answer on a project like this. Trust me on that one.