Selling agents
 

Never allow yourself to forget they are SALESMEN. If, you prefer SALESPEOPLE. There job is to SELL. If they have a block home to sell they will tell you that is better. If they have a sided home to sell they will tell you that is better.

You need to do your own research. I'm sure things are different in Florida. We currently have a block home. Our previous home had vinyl siding and the siding was 40 years old. Rain, snow gloom of night for 40 years it was not cracked etc.

Able to stand up to winds etc. The building code was changed about 2011 where a home need to be designed to stand up to higher winds. Others mentioned a roof blowing off a block home.
On a more recently built home the code demands the roof be better secured. For people who have added stuff like a solar pool heater, solar collector, dish antenna-I wonder about the effect-the liability etc.

If you want to work with an agent that won't tell you which is better and will show you only what you want to see contact Beth Pope, great lady, great agent.

You save a little money on insurance with a block home.

I second the Beth Pope praise.

My wife wanted brick as she said she would feel safer so we bought brick. You do lose a few feet of living space because the walls are thicker.

OK. I'll bite. Where are brick homes in The Villages?

They wanted 6K to paint my small CYV with watered down spay gun. I painted it myself, took about 16 hours, 6 gallons paint, and rollers for about 450. This also included my wall inside and out and I live on corner.

Bricks are material to cover up the framing, same as rock, or stucco, wood, or vinyl. Block house is cinder blocks walls, framed house is 2 by 4s. There also concrete reinforcements poured frames.

I think the brick homes are in the village next to the cement homes,

In Oklahoma when the 5.8 earthquake hit close to brick homes all the brick and the fireplace came crumbling down. The framing was left where the fireplace didn’t crush it.

I'm not sure who you got a quote from, but 6K is ridiculously high. Designers can be done for 3k-4k. Most CYV's are in the 1,700-2000 range, by reputable, well-established painting companies here in TV.

So do all the homes with Stucco siding have solid brick walls?

No. Stucco homes in The Villages have mainly concrete block behind the stucco or solid poured concrete. SOME portions above the main walls that are stucco, such as gables above the garage and the taller front entry areas often have OSB behind the stucco. These areas can be long term areas of concern.

In other communities, like StoneCrest, they have many homes that are stucco over wood frame. In some areas you can also find the problematic EIFS construction.

Without getting into a long discussion, stucco over concrete block or solid poured concrete is much better than stucco over wood here in Florida.

On this thread, I think there may be some confusion between the term "brick" and "concrete block".....


Frank

I totally agree
 

As my dad said, you never win an argument with your wife.
Long after you have forgotten it, it will come back 20+ years later.

Brick homes
 

They've not built brick homes in a very long time. A guess last done in the 1950's. What people call a brick home is a brick layer over a frame built home.

We have a block home. I'm no building expert but, if you look at what the blocks are they are cast large cement blocks. The blocks are not solid. They usually have two or three air chambers cast into them saving weight and material-COST. Termites can and do use those tubes to get around undetected. Also, as a kid, we had some derelict block houses in the neighborhood. If, you hit the air chamber with a fairly light hammer you can punch a hole right into the block.