Your Questions About Brick Siding For Houses

Is it worth it to put new siding on a house?

We just bought a house a couple of months ago and are “thinking” about putting new siding on it. The front of the house is all brick but the sides and back would need new siding. The house was built in 1986 and although we are not sure how long we will be in this house we would like to save our money to be out of here in the least ten years.

Would we be investing more money than the house would be worth, I mean not getting that money back in the long run, like breaking even by the time we sell the house or would it be worth it to be new siding on the house?

I hope that made sense, thank you in advance for any help.

How to deal with rotting wood and a brick/siding gap on the side of a chimney?

While inspecting the side of my house for ant piles I noticed a TON of ants were crawling between the brick of my house and aluminum siding around my chimney.
Upon closer inspection I noticed about a 3-inch gap between the brick and siding that somewhat rotting wood was fit between. I ripped out the very bottom of the wood to inspect and there was an ENTIRE FIRE ANT PILE (dirt and all) behind the rotting wood (yes, on top of the foundation of my house and living “between bricks”)!

So I quickly washed out the ant pile and blocked the bottom of the hole with a few stones and some caulk (temporary fix). I also ripped out all the wood (at the bottom) that was rotting, revealing a larger hole/gap between the siding around the chimney and the brick that composes the wall to the right of the chimney.

Then I looked behind and noticed those aluminum sidings pieces were covering wood and I mistakenly got some of the wood wet. So I left the gap open and am hoping it will dry out and not do any damage to the plywood back there.

Now I’m in this dilemma: what should I do to seal up the rest of the hole and put a final seal over the stone/caulk temporary fix I was using to make it harder for bugs to climb in from the ground?

I was thinking of just plugging the hole with wood…only afraid the wood would just get wet and cause a repeat of the problem.
Another option seems to be layering cement on top of more cement until it fills the hole. Yet another seems to be using silicon instead. I am wondering what other options exist as well.
No matter what the option…I want to make sure the wood is dry and no mold ends up back there and am wondering how long I should wait before sealing the hole.

As a side question…I really wonder why on earth someone would use wood framing at the bottom of a brick chimney and/or what other parts of the chimney I might want to double check on to make sure they are water and bug-proof.

How do you get the black off burned brick?

A fire started outside my yellow brick house on the side of the garage. We were able to get it out really fast and suffered no inside damage. The only issue is that the brick is black in places. We have sprayed it with the hose and then used something called Krud Kleaner, which helped, but there is still some bad areas. Do they make something effective for this type of damage?

How Do I clean mold/fungus/whatever off the side of my brick house??

It’s not a lot. maybe a 2×3 area that has some sort of growth on it. the mail box has it too! I tried bleech and it didn’t work. Is there some type of cleaning product for this?? Im looking for something I can just spray on it and rinse off.. if its that easy?! I don’t think the area is big enough to go through all the hassle of a pressure washer. any ideas??

Any way to stick wood to brick?

I have a brick fireplace on out side of house.. I am wanting to add some wooden bird houses…they are fairly light.
I do not want to add screws in brick.
Are they any thing I can get to stick them to the brick…
lol I tried duck type…
Thanks for all answers