Brick Veneer vs Fiber Cement Siding: Pros and Cons
My name is Tom Riordan, and I’ve spent the last twenty years renovating older houses around New Haven, Connecticut — Hamden, East Rock, Westville, all of it. When the cedar clapboards on my own Hamden house finally rotted past patching, I spent three weekends standing in the driveway staring at bare sheathing, torn between brick veneer and fiber cement siding. I got quotes for both, drove around East Rock and Westville looking at houses that had already made each choice, and landed on an answer I still stand behind. Here’s the comparison I wish someone had handed me before I started, because the glossy brochures for both products skip the parts that actually matter in a New England climate.
Two very different things doing the same job
Brick veneer is a single wythe of real brick tied back to the wall framing, sitting on a ledge, with an air gap and weep holes behind it. It isn’t structural — it’s a rain screen built out of brick. Fiber cement, the stuff most people know by the James Hardie name, is cement, sand, and cellulose fiber pressed into planks or panels shaped to mimic clapboard or shingles. One is masonry. One is a manufactured board. They age and fail in completely different ways, and that difference matters more than either sales brochure lets on.
What each one actually costs, installed
The price gap is what narrows the field fast for most owners I talk to. Fiber cement runs roughly $8 to $15 per square foot installed. Brick veneer runs roughly $18 to $35 per square foot installed, sometimes more, because it needs skilled masons, a proper foundation ledge, and a lot more labor hours.
| Material | Installed cost | Typical upkeep cycle |
|---|---|---|
| Fiber cement siding | $8–$15 per sq ft | Repaint every 10–15 years |
| Brick veneer | $18–$35 per sq ft | Repoint mortar every 25–50 years |
On a typical New England two-story, that gap works out to roughly a $15,000 decision spread across the whole house. Fiber cement also goes up faster on the wall, which shortens the number of days your house sits wrapped in housewrap waiting on a crew.
Why New England winters expose bad installs, not bad materials
This is where I put in most of my homework. Both materials handle our freeze-thaw cycles fine when they’re installed correctly — the failure modes are just different. Brick is close to maintenance-free for decades; the real risk is efflorescence and mortar joints that eventually need repointing, roughly every 25 to 50 years. That’s the same tuckpointing work you’d do on a chimney or a foundation wall, just on a bigger scale. Fiber cement resists rot, insects, and fire, but the paint film is the wear item, and the caulked joints and butt seams need attention every few years or water finds a way in behind them. The Brick Industry Association’s technical notes on brick veneer and moisture are what convinced me that the weep holes and air gap behind the brick are what make it durable — a mason who skips them is setting a house up for trapped-moisture problems down the line, no matter how good the brick looks going up.
The maintenance bill nobody mentions at the estimate
If I think in 40-year terms, brick wins on total upkeep: wash it occasionally, repoint once in a long while, done. Fiber cement asks for repainting roughly every 10 to 15 years and joint maintenance in between, which is real recurring cost and labor, not a one-and-done. But fiber cement lets you change color whenever you want, which brick does not, and it weighs a fraction as much, so it skips the foundation ledge brick needs. The right call really follows your climate and how long you plan to stay put — I walk through that logic in more detail in this piece on how climate should drive your siding choice.
What went on my own house
I went brick veneer on the front elevation for the curb appeal and the low upkeep, and fiber cement on the two side walls and the back to keep the budget sane. That hybrid approach is common on our older streets, on houses mostly built between the 1890s and 1930s, and honestly nobody notices the sides. If you’re staying put for 20-plus years and can afford the difference, brick pays you back in near-zero maintenance. If you’re budget-driven, planning to move within a decade, or you just like the option of changing your color down the road, fiber cement is the smart, lower-cost call. Neither choice is a mistake — they serve different owners, and on a historic or heritage-style home, either can look right if the trim and proportions are done properly.
Questions I get asked most
How much does it cost to switch from siding to brick veneer in a place like New Haven? Expect roughly $18 to $35 per square foot installed for brick veneer versus $8 to $15 for fiber cement, which on a typical two-story house adds up to about a $15,000 gap between the two. Local labor rates and access to the wall (scaffolding, tight lot lines) can push either number higher.
Should I repair the old siding or just replace it? If the rot or cracked mortar is limited to a section — a few boards, one wall, a chimney that needs repointing — spot repair almost always makes sense. Once damage is spread across most of the elevations, like mine was, a full re-do costs less per square foot than patching piecemeal and gives you a clean warranty on the whole wall.
What siding or masonry material fits an older, historic-style home best? Brick veneer or genuine brick restoration tends to match pre-1930s housing stock the closest, since that’s what a lot of it was built with originally. Fiber cement in a clapboard or shingle profile is the more budget-friendly stand-in and holds paint well, but it won’t read quite the same as real brick or mortar-repaired historic masonry up close.
Does brick veneer actually hold up in New England winters? Yes, as long as it’s installed with an air gap and weep holes behind it so any trapped moisture has somewhere to go. The main long-term task is repointing the mortar joints roughly every 25 to 50 years — the same maintenance you’d expect from chimney repointing or any other exterior masonry.
How often does fiber cement siding need repainting? Typically every 10 to 15 years, with the caulked joints and butt seams needing occasional touch-ups in between so water doesn’t get in behind the planks. On an addition the two claddings usually meet somewhere, and a Nassau County home addition contractor will detail that junction before either material is ordered.