Brick Houses (was: Rupert! What were you thinking?

[Catlady (Rita Prince]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, "juli17ptf" <juli17 at ...> wrote:
> 
> Steve wrote:
> >
> > > Brick houses in the US are brick, but some houses have 
> > > brick-face, which is basically the same as stucco. 
> > 
> Zanooda: 
> > Well, it's nice to know that real brick houses exist in the US, although I must admit that I never saw one. There is a lot of construction around here, but it's always wood-wood-wood, unless it's a high-rise or an office building  :-). They put on this brick-face, as you call it, and it looks really nice too, but the house is still wooden inside. I thought no one even knows here how to build a house out of brick alone, LOL!
> > 
> > zanooda, who had to look up "stucco"... :-).
> 
> Julie:
> In California virtually all houses are made of stucco. Brick
> houses would crumble during an earthquake.

Now: Rita. Especially the older cities like Santa Monica and Pasadena still have some masonry buildings from before the 1933 earthquake. They have fewer after each new quake... Anyway, I was going to reminisce about a brick building in Pasadena that *exploded* during the 1994 quake. Bricks all over the parking lot and the street, crushing some unlucky cars.

> I never saw a brick
> house until I went to Texas to visit relatives. I think they
> are much prettier than most stucco houses, but they aren't an
> option in earthquake-prone areas. Nor do wood or stone fare
> well. So stucco it is :-)

Now: Rita. The stucco houses in California are wood-framed. I've pretty much always lived in lath-and-plaster houses covered in stucco, but nowdays people use drywall instead of lath-and-plaster.