We're doing all 3. Rock is most expensive, followed by brick, then Hardie.

Sunny Days is correct, but one thing to keep in mind is the differential between the two varies significantly depending your location. Where I am in the northeast, the differential between Hardie and a high quality vinyl is much greater than in many other parts of the country - I presume b/c it is much more labor intensive to install and labor costs here are relatively high. I never priced out brick, but I would think it is even more pronounced given how labor intensive the install is.

In other words, like almost everything to do with construction, costs are highly dependent on location.

When determining costs, be sure to factor in life cycle costs. It will cost $X,XXX to paint the Hardie in the future, it will cost $0 to paint the stone or brick in the future.

We just spent 7k to repaint our fiber cement siding after 11 yrs....extremely faded. We made it a warranty issue and Certainteed paid for a few buckets of paint, lol.

so Mark makes a good point.

Yes, Mark, we are thinking that way. Our last house was all brick and apart from minor repair to some mortar, it was maintenance free. Would love it again, just have no idea what the difference is costs are.

Mark Bischak, Architect - don't forget though, that depending on your climate, you may have to 'repoint' your brickstone sometime in the future. I have friends who are very unhappy about this cost, as they hadn't expected it to happen...

We are choosing smooth hardie plank because we wanted a white timeless house,brick or brick and rock combo is what is popular in our area,but it just looks dated,you can drive around all the subdivisions built over the last 15 years and they all look the same.I know we will have more maintenance but if you want a certain look there could be trade offs.

We priced out both for our 3,200 sqft 2 story, and Brick over Hardie was a 40k upcharge. We're outside Chicago and labor is expensive. We're ending up with stone veneer pony wall with LP smart side over that as the compromise.

I just did the same thing.For 100 sq ft:

Hardi $110 Labor

Material HZ5 $115

Hardi shingle $550

Hardi Color Plus: $225 (install additional + $15 [$125])

Smart LP material $90 / $90 labor for 100 sq ft

Brick: $400 per 1000 bricks * (~5) = $2000 per 100 sq ft + brick ledge $4.25 lf

Coronado Stone $13 sq ft installed = $1300 (no brick ledge needed)

My Total 32 squares, premium vinyl $2000 total less than HZ5.

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What would you be using for your house in this situation?

Just be careful when you mix brick, stone and hardie or even just 2 of those. The majority of the brick/stone combinations out there are not a good match colorwise and make the house look too busy ... just becasue everyone is doing it, doesn't mean it is a good look! Also be careful of how you use these materials, so that you don't end up looking like your house has a "high tide water line".

General rule should be no more than 2 materials on a house. Yes I have 3 on mine. Stone for the bottom, then stucco and finally clapboard.

IMO this is way too soon to be thinking seriously about cladding materials. When you have a design my advice would be to pick one material and not dilute the architectural effect with other materials unless it is one above the other like cp's house. I would not arbitrarily use brick and stone together or two different kinds of siding just to add interest; a well designed house shouldn't need it.

Yes JDS, I agree, just wanted to explore the cost differences. Our last house was all brick which we loved, and would like again, but our new neighborhood is mostly cement siding. Curious about cost changes in the last 20 years. Thanks to all!

Loving this thread. We're now making decisions on brick/stone/hardie/premium vinyl. So good to see the comparisons here.