Cladding Exposed Basement Walls On Exterior

dakzaag

I have about 30 inches of exposed basement wall, (exterior) below the siding and above the ground,that I would like to finish to improve the look of my property.

If I can come up with a good solution, I can probably market this fairly easily in my area (Northern Indiana) I realize I am reinventing the wheel a little, but I have done several quotes in the last year to address this exact detail on older homes and it always involves digging and pouring a brick ledge which usually kills the deal.


Options (I can thnk of)
1. Paint (functional but not fantastic)
2. Brick (Expensive if no brick ledge)
-----a. Poured walls can handle an iron lintel
-----b. block especially the old rough faced block that looks like
-------cottage cheese are especially ugly and good potential for
-------an up grade, but to put brick on you have to dig a footer.
3. Stucco/cultured stone (Not much cheaper than brick)

There are a lot more options, I know, but to keep it short...

The idea I really like is EIFS.
------Adds R value, improves looks, doesn't need a foundation.
------I think it could be applied to the ugly old block which whould be
------a huge market.

What are the weaknesses of EIFS in this situation?
--How do I handle the transition from house siding to eifs?
--How do I handle the termination strip at ground?

I am looking for other ideas, and an expert in EIFS to point out the weaknesses of this idea.

Thanks for any input

__________________
D K & Sons
The maintenance schedule for brick
1. Stand back and say "man that looks nice!"
2. Repeat as often as needed.

loneframer

The brickwork on this house is a veneer product. No stoneledge required. sorry about the bad clarity, that center section is radiused, veneer allows to maintain a proper mortar joint width.

dakzaag

Thanks,
Thin brick is just like cultured stone, basically a stucco product. I really like the round look with masonry facing, makes the thinking person say hmm.

That would work on poured walls, but the rough faced block would be really hard to level out. The "textured" face of these old block probably vary about an inch and a half from the high point to the joint.

Thanks.

__________________
D K & Sons
The maintenance schedule for brick
1. Stand back and say "man that looks nice!"
2. Repeat as often as needed.

stacker

your stucco,cultured stone,thin brick and effis,are all basically the same.where no brick ledge is available i always try to sell a customer on stone or stucco.

"Options (I can thnk of)
1. Paint (functional but not fantastic)
2. Brick (Expensive if no brick ledge)
-----a. Poured walls can handle an iron lintel
-----b. block especially the old rough faced block that looks like
-------cottage cheese are especially ugly and good potential for
-------an up grade, but to put brick on you have to dig a footer.
3. Stucco/cultured stone (Not much cheaper than brick)"

when you realize that no brick ledge is needed for option 3,it makes it cheaper than brick.

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dakzaag

Yes it is cheaper, but on the ugly old block, the surface is too variable to stucco. I think this is where the eifs will be particularly attractive as the foam can be glued to the high points of the block and possibly a mechanical attachment made at the joints then just mud it in and paint.

Still not sure of the transition points on top and bottom

Thanks for the comments.

__________________
D K & Sons
The maintenance schedule for brick
1. Stand back and say "man that looks nice!"
2. Repeat as often as needed.

cleveman

Option 1: Get in your time machine and go back to when the house was built and lay a course of corbel block near the grade.

Option 2: Raise the home and remove a few courses of block and install the corbel and re-lay the block, then brick up. Maybe lay two more courses of block and raise the headroom in the bsmt up 16". You may laugh, but if it is a small ranch home, this may be quite simple.

Option 3: Now I'm really thinking outside the box. But if this could work, it might be very nice: Go below grade where you want a brick ledge and really clean up the block. The rougher the surface, the better. Get something for the ledge made up. Maybe you can get some half high solid 4" concrete block and cut them diagonally lenthwise so you end up with a ledge starting at 0 and going up to 4". This would be quite a cut. Anyway, the idea is to stick this to the blockwork. Plaster the face of the block with your material, and the back of the corbel piece. As for material, I'll leave this up to you. You might know how sticky the thinset material is for tilesetting. Then you've got your epoxies. Anyway, it won't take a lot of material and might work. It might help to have some form underneath for the corbel to sit on so you can stay relatively straight.

Option 4: I did this one before. I dropped a house down onto a poured foundation with a 2x10 top plate. I overlapped the 2x10 over the poured wall by 2". I filled this 2" with polystyrene down to the footing, so this is what I needed to cover. I went with some of that very heavy vinyl fake stone. I just nailed it on to the 2x10 top plate and let it drape down. I finished the ledge by having some metal bent a few times and tacked onto the wall sheathing, so I'm water and bug proof. I then sided the home. What I like about this is that I can go ahead and bring up the grade in different areas up to 4" from the siding. The heavy vinyl fake stone is about 18" high. As long as I have maybe 4" of dirt and turf up on it, I'm not worried about it bowing out. My insulation is protected. Believe it or not and as a testament to the general intelligence of the folk, I have had several compliments about my stone veneer on the basement walls.

Good luck.

TimelessQuality

what's that product called?

__________________
-Steve

"The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science." ~ Albert Einstein

Patrick

Naillite They filed chapter 11 this week though

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Originally Posted by Celtic
Like I said...I'm sure you are very good at what you do ~ whatever that is and where ever it happens.

cleveman

I don't know the name of the heavy vinyl fake stone. I bought it at Menards. It is the only non-masonry siding product I found which can be below grade. They have several types of stone and fake brick as well. They also have the corners.

Tscarborough

I think you can be banned for suggesting EIFS for that application.

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It ain't Rocket Science unless you are building rockets.

dakzaag

I was afraid of that.

Cleveman,
well, I did ask for suggestions, but I think the operative word would be cost effective, and improving the look. Not a big fan of fake stone, especially if it is nailed on. But thanks for thinking outside the box.

Hey, I have been fishing before and I know if you don't wet the line you won't land any fish.

__________________
D K & Sons
The maintenance schedule for brick
1. Stand back and say "man that looks nice!"
2. Repeat as often as needed.

Brickie

SRW wall stone w/caps would look good.

__________________
“Ron Paul is one of the outstanding leaders fighting for a stronger national defense. As a former Air Force officer, he knows well the needs of our armed forces, and he always puts them first. We need to keep him fighting for our country.” – Ronald Reagan

cleveman

OK,

The fake stone or brick in very heavy vinyl I used is from Novik and costs $297.80/square.

Dakzaag,

what is not cost effective about my brick ledge, or do you not think it would hold? The other thing I thought about to make it hold better would be if there was some way to rout out a bit of block and give it just a little lip on the course below to rest on.

dakzaag

cleve,
Sorry, maybe I just can't picture it, but I don't see toe nailing beveled 4" half highs to an existing 60 yr old block as something I want to put my name on. Maybe you were describing something else.

If I am going to make a brick ledge, I will just get my little shovel out and start digging. I am thinking something that doesn't require a brick ledge, but maybe I need to step away from the key board while it is still safe.

__________________
D K & Sons
The maintenance schedule for brick
1. Stand back and say "man that looks nice!"
2. Repeat as often as needed.

cleveman

Sorry, I thought digging was the deal breaker and to be avoided.

What is wrong with plastering right over the brick, not eifs, just that sticky plaster with fiberglass in it? There used to be a product called "surewall" or something along those lines.

dakzaag

Nothing wrong with stucco on basement walls that are poured concrete or smooth block. In this area we have many older homes with a rough faced block that is very rough. (maybe varying 1 1/2" from the high point to the joint) I would like to figure out a reasonable cover for this situation as I have demand for such services. Stucco would be a real challenge to fill in that kind of gap.
Thanks for the thoughts.

__________________
D K & Sons
The maintenance schedule for brick
1. Stand back and say "man that looks nice!"
2. Repeat as often as needed.

Brickie

As one that is in your area & does this type of work, One of the things that I install in situations like you describe is to use SRW stone. There all kinds of players out there Unilock Rockwood, etc. & all kinds of varieties, colors, etc., which gives you endless design options to enhance the look of the property.

__________________
“Ron Paul is one of the outstanding leaders fighting for a stronger national defense. As a former Air Force officer, he knows well the needs of our armed forces, and he always puts them first. We need to keep him fighting for our country.” – Ronald Reagan

dakzaag

Brickie,
I have thought about this idea a little. I think you stated putting a cap at the top where the transition from siding would be. This would be like a typical row lock course on top of a short brick veneer wall. I can see where this would eliminate the footer.

Do you bevel the cap stone, or just lay it in a bed of mortar so it has some slope away from the building. Also I think some sort of flashing is needed at this transition point.

Still like the idea of stucco on top of a layer of foam attached to the block. How do I learn more about the weaknesses of eifs.

__________________
D K & Sons
The maintenance schedule for brick
1. Stand back and say "man that looks nice!"
2. Repeat as often as needed.

artisanstone

I'm no expert, but I think one of the weaknesses of eifs is, that it cannot be run with grade contact. In my area when you do see it (rare), it has a band of hardcoat stucco for the bottom 8" to separate it from the ground.

__________________
Bill Baddorf
Bill@artisanstoneworks.net
www.artisanstoneworks.net
www.stonefoundation.org

Brickie

Here you go......


http://www.rtbullard.com/eifs.htm

__________________
“Ron Paul is one of the outstanding leaders fighting for a stronger national defense. As a former Air Force officer, he knows well the needs of our armed forces, and he always puts them first. We need to keep him fighting for our country.” – Ronald Reagan