Expert: Bruce E. Johnson - 4/15/2011

Question
Hello,

I live in a 1924 house that has vinyl siding and a brick "bottom" on it. A couple years ago my husband saw a couple cracks in some bricks in the front and decided it would be a good fix to cover it with grey concrete, so now it looks really ugly in the front or it looks like we have some kind of foundation problem, which I don't believe we do...our basement doesn't leak and we can't pull any bricks out. Our house is currently on the market and I was thinking it would look alot better to put some cute skirting up which I've heard a little about. So my questions are:
1) Can I put skirting over the brick on my house?
2) Does it come with directions or do we need to have a contractor put it on?
Thanks!

Answer
Hi Rebecca, depending on the material you choose it is not that difficult to install skirting onto existing brick.  The new skirting is tapconned onto the brick.  Another option would be to have a stucco contractor stucco the wainscot.  I'm wondering if your husband tried this when you said he put grey concrete over the brick. Any material you get for skirting probably won't come with instructions however and if you or your husband aren't comfortable doing basic carpentry work then you may need to hire a professional..sincerely bruce e johnson