I've never seen this type of siding in the Midwest what is it. Looks like plywood with sand of stone on it. Hope THE PICTURES SHOW UP

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Wow, everyone must be taking the evening off.... I'll give you my idea; I've seen this stuff in my area on 50's/60's construction. It basically looks like coarse stucco. It's put on over plywood or similar, likely applied like stucco only with pebbles instead of fines.

The stuff I've seen holds up very well unless, like anything, it gets water behind it. I don't think it was very common, at least not in my area, but when I do run into it, it's usually in good shape. Like any other exterior covering, you're most likely to have a problem at a seam or penetration.

The photo resolution/size was so small I could not tell what it was (except for the trim pieces).

What you describe ("with pebbles") is like I've seen on commercial jobs where the pebbles are embedded into concrete shortly after the concrete had been placed into a form and screeded off, once cured, the panel sections were erected (like tilt-up construction does today). Sometimes the panels were made on site, other times the panels were made at a precast plant.

There is another, less expensive, variation I've seen a few times on residences which were frame or masonry. The process was that a scratch coat of stucco would be applied, then a base coat of stucco and the pebbles 'blown' or 'shot' into the uncured stucco, the stones would then be troweled in to make a smooth (flat in plane may be a better description) pebbled surface.

The wide spacing of the vertical trim indicates to me that it might be tilt-up or precast panels.

What type of construction was it? Frame? Masonry/concrete?

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Jerry Peck, Construction / Litigation Consultant
Construction Litigation Consultants, LLC ( www.ConstructionLitigationConsultants.com )

Jerry sorry the picture is so small; I used the picture I put into Report Host report writer and it has to reduced. The home this is on is a frame home and I believe your description of how its applied is likely correct. This home was built in 1962, I don't know if your able see the fascia boards in the picture but they have stone on on them. It looks like they was a glue material that held them on, many are now coming off. The home is a foreclosure and was a mess. Didn't seem worth the $215,000 price, I don't care if its 300 feet from the lake. There were so many issues you may as well rebuild it.

That's about the time frame of the homes I've seen, 1960s but not much later than around 1970.

Bill,

Sounds like the way 'cheap' Chattahoochee is applied - small pebbles glued on, more like 'stone chips' than 'pebbles' though.

Good quality Chattahoochee was made with the pebbles embedded into the concrete as I described, only the forms did not make walls, they made walkways, patios and driveways.

__________________
Jerry Peck, Construction / Litigation Consultant
Construction Litigation Consultants, LLC ( www.ConstructionLitigationConsultants.com )

Bill,

Be careful with subjective comments and property values.

JMO,
Rick

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I worked on two eighteen story condos in westwood that used what looks similar to above siding. The process was to trowel on mortar then they blew the rock into the mortar out of a hose similar to gunite hose. I remember it being very dusty. But the process gave full coverage of rock with good adhesion form high impact shooting. Panels were blow on site on the vertical.

Jeff

Price? Do these houses actually have prices attached?

I often get home and describe a bit about a house to my wife and she immediately asks 'how much?' - 95% of the time I have no idea... and it's funny. It's not that I'm not interested.... on the weekends we'll often go check out open houses. I'm just focusing on other things while I'm doing an inspection I guess.

The purposed buyer mentioned the price to me. No, I never mention price or talk about repair costs. Read to much about inspectors giving opinions, I don't. But honestly there are time when I wish I could !