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	the exterior factor BUILDERS FAVOR STONE, CEDAR AND MAN-MADE MATERIALS By Jeffrey Steele - Crain's Chicago Business July 19, 2004 We've all heard the saying about people who live in glass houses. Tom Roszak has heard it too. Presumably, he won't be throwing stones anytime soon. Mr. Roszak, president of Roszak/ADC in Evanston, is a designer and builder of multifamily residential structures. But when it came to constructing his own upscale single-family home on the North Shore not long ago, he didn't use brick or stone. He created a glass-enclosed domicile. While it's a novelty today, don't be surprised to see more all-glass homes sprouting in the years ahead, Mr. Roszak says. Today's glass products have come a long way technologically, and now are considerably better at minimizing heat gain and loss than just a few years ago. "Before they were commercially available, but not available to the residential market," Mr. Roszak says. "Now they are available to the residential market, and the price has gone down." The day when glass becomes a cladding choice for the masses is a long way off. For right now, stone, brick and wood are still the most popular options in upscale single-family home exteriors. But look for man-made materials, which seem to improve in quality and cost-competitiveness yearly, to begin making substantial inroads, say builders and architects. According to Bud Dietrich, owner of HFD Architects in Deerfield, the hierarchy of prestige and price in residential exteriors starts with limestone and other types of natural stone. Next in order comes redwood siding, trailed by brick and cedar siding. These natural products are followed by a growing legion of man-made materials, including wood and stone look-alikes. Natural Stone, Greater Functionality One of Mr. Dietrich's favorite exterior materials is Buechel (pronounced BE-kel), a natural stone quarried in Wisconsin by the Buechel Stone Corporation. Buechel can be thinly sliced, rendering it both easier to install and as affordable as brick, Mr. Dietrich says. But an equally attractive quality is Buechel's appearance. "The colors have a natural quality to them, and a natural range to them, so they don't look artificial," Mr. Dietrich notes. "The best artificial stones look really good by themselves. But when you put them side by side against natural stone, you can see they're artificial." Steve Glasberg, president of Glasberg Homes in Skokie, builds brick and stone houses on the North Shore that range in price from $1.5 to $4 million. Most of his $3 million and up homes feature natural stone quarried in Fond du lac and Beaver Creek, Wis. The cost of that stone represents much of the price differential between his more and less expensive houses. "If you're doing a stone house, it's between two and three times more expensive than brick," Mr. Glasberg notes. "That's labor and materials. It's a lot more difficult to install stone. Bricks come in nice square shapes, they're light and they're easy to work with. Stone is irregular, it's not nice square cuts, it's all shapes and sizes. There's a lot more thinking involved, a lot more artistry involved. The stone masons have to use their heads more." The cost of natural stone rises still further when limestone is used, Mr. Glasberg adds. That's why newer limestone homes are rare, even on the North Shore. Glasberg estimates that just using limestone for door and window surrounds could add $40,000 or more to home costs. Another North Shore expert, Nancy Becker of Highland Park-based Becker Architects Ltd., swears by stucco, brick and prestained cedar for the upscale homes her firm designs. She favors brick and stucco for their hassle-free, low-maintenance qualities. Herself a brick homeowner for 15 years, she reports that even though her house dates back to 1915, the only exterior maintenance she has had to endure is the tuckpointing of two chimneys. Stucco, however, is almost as maintenance free, she says. The color of the stucco is part of the stucco itself. Maintenance, she adds, "is a matter of just cleaning the stucco." While stucco has proven its appeal over the decades, a synthetic product designed to emulate stucco, Dryvit, has encountered problems in certain climates, say builders and architects. In some cases, particularly in the South, moisture became trapped behind Dryvit panels. Mold resulted, forcing homeowners to rip out the Dryvit and install new home exteriors. "It wasn't a product issue as much as an installation issue," notes Bob Verbic, director of builder marketing with Coldwell Banker in Des Plaines. "I think there's one insurance company that won't insure a single-family home with Dryvit, and others that will charge prohibitive premiums, double and triple what would be normal." Cedar and its Successor As for cedar, its benefit is that it's lower priced than either brick or stucco, and when properly treated, it can also save homeowners a ton of work over time. Pre-stained cedar is impregnated with stain before installation, Ms. Becker says. The color goes deeper into the wood, and, as a result, pre-stained cedar will enjoy a longer life than its natural counterpart. Depending on the exposure of a wall, natural cedar can turn black or bleach out, resulting in different colorations on different walls of the house, or even different parts of the same wall. Cedar also encourages designers to infuse a home's exterior with additional wood accents, such as corner board or trim board. "Maybe you have a trim board that splits the house between the first and second floors," Ms. Becker observes. "Cedar is a little more whimsical." Some believe, however, that cedar has met its match in a man-made material called Hardiplank. Manufactured by James Hardie Siding Products, Hardiplank is made from fiber-reinforced cement material, says Roger Mankedick, executive vice-president of Concord Homes, a Palatine-based builder whose highest-priced houses reach into the million-dollar range. Though it comes pre-stained, Hardiplank accepts paint and is resistant to weather, Mr. Mankedick reports. It's more colorfast than wood, doesn't absorb moisture and avoids the expansion and contraction issues that can lead to cracking of painted or stained wood. As a result, homeowners find there's less need to repaint or replace cracked panels. Roszak/ADC 1415 Sherman Avenue Suite 101 Evanston, IL 60201 Main  847-425-7555 Sales  847-328-8200 Fax  847-425-7540 email inquiries: info@roszakadc.com copyright© 2003 Roszak/ADC. All rights reserved.