When my house was built in 1880, the most common way to build was using brick, and lots of it. All the attached houses in the city, or rowhomes, as we call them, were built out of structural brick. Not all bricks were created the same though. In affluent neighborhoods like mount vernon, the bricks that were used for the front facades there were of the best quality. Back in the working class neighborhood of Canton, where my house is, the bricks used on the front facade were rather porous and leaky.

In the early 1940’s a product was invented called Formstone. This was a type of stucco applied to the front facades of rowhomes to create a simulated masonry effect. This new product was touted as ‘the best was to weatherproof and insulate your house in a completely maintenance free way for the cost of 3 coats of paint’….’first cost is the last; no upkeep or repair…lasting beauty for exteriors or interiors; tried and proven; fully guaranteed’.

The formstone revolution hit Baltimore hard and lots of houses covered their front brick, or marble, facades with this exciting new modern material. I mean come on, who doesn’t want their house to look like a castle.

Formstone is mixed on-site and directly applied to the building’s exterior. It is applied in 3 layers, anchored by a perforated metal lath attached to the underlying brick with nails. The first layer of cement mortar is 3/8” to 3/4” thick and it is scored before it dries. The second layer is between 1/4” and 3/8” thick. The top layer, or finish layer, is also between 1/4” and 3/8” thick and is applied while the second layer is still plastic. While the finish layer is still wet, it is hand-sculpted into the shape of stones.

Because of this intense application, it is quite challenging to remove. When the house, connected to the south of me via a party wall, was sold to a developer, I knew among the first things they would do is remove the formstone. I chatted with the project manager, and asked if I could tag along and have the subcontractor just remove the formstone for my house as well, when they were doing the job to their house.

For $2800, they came out and removed the formstone from both of our houses, cleaned the brick, and repointed. After about a day, they had all the stone off. We could get our first glance at the brick that laid underneath all that faux stone. It looked pretty bad. There was still a lot of work that needed to be done to the bricks. Over the next couple of days, they power washed and scrubbed clean each brick. Then they repointed the whole front facade, and acid washed everything to give it it’s final finish. At the conclusion of that, the front of my house finally looked awesome! Sorry, I didn’t take any in progress shots.

Unfortunately, my vinyl windows, (1980’s?) were flashed to the formstone. This meant all the caulking and aluminum trim was completely open to the elements. Luckily my dad just started up at pella windows and was able to get me a great deal on all new windows. With his discount, we were able to specify some pretty high end windows. For the upper windows we went with traditional double hung windows from their Lifestyle brand. They are all wood windows with aluminum clad exteriors. On the first floor, we went back and forth a lot on the proper options. My house has a stained glass transom over the first floor window. I wanted to keep that element, but preserve it from the elements. We decided to place it on the interior of the house behind a picture IGU window. Beneath that, we went with 2 casement windows. Pella also offered built in shades between the 2nd and 3rd pane of glass. We also sprung for the retractable bug screen on that window. That allows the screen to be hidden when the windows are closed, but you can pull them down when you open the windows. Pretty sweet. The package was pretty pricey, but when you only have 4 windows in the front of your house, you can spring for the good stuff.

We hired out the installation and aluminium wrapping of the new windows to the brick. In the end, it turned out really nice. The installers only charged $200 per window.

Side Story:

One of my first projects on the house was to replace the front door. I went with a hemlock jeld wen wood door. Long story short, that door failed, and I got jeld wen to replace it with a mahogany door. When they sent the first replacement door, it was the wrong size. Too big. They sent another mahogany door, the proper sized and told me to keep the first mistake. So I installed it, and after 3 years, it looked completely terrible. The sun, weather had caused all the panels in the door to warp out of shape. When the guys were redoing the formstone, they acid washed the door, and completely ruined the finish. I threw that door out and cut the first mahogany door to fit, and installed that one. I’m going to try and stay up on my maintenance with that one, but I just think wood doors are a terrible option if you have a west facing door with no cover.

Side story #2, Cornice:

Lastly, the cornice of my house somehow got messed up over the years. I noticed from the interior, when I was building the bedroom for my house The area above my window had CMU block installed. That probably meant the brick had been removed at some point, and the block would have been exposed. I had the guys stop when they arrived at the cornice, and had them leave a bit of formstone as the cornice. To build another one would have been an extra $3-5k. I was pretty tapped out after the windows and the formstone. So I just painted it black to match the windows. A little nod back to the old look. Also I noticed on the first floor that my window dimensions have changed over the years. Take a look at the brick arch over all the windows. I guess some one wanted it a little bigger at some point.

All this adds a little bit of character to my nearly 140 year old house. I wasn’t planning on working on the front facade of the house for a few years, but the timing was good with the house next door, and the cost just worked out.

Looks pretty sharp I think…