Cladding and rendering ideas

While you may like the idea of buying a brand new home, it’s easy to be put off by the costs involved. But there is another option – re-cladding. Changing the cladding will make a huge difference to your existing home, as it’s like giving the old place a face lift. If your house is brick, the popular option is to change the look by rendering the walls. You can even render a weatherboard home by first re-cladding with fibre cement sheets.

What are the options?
There are many cladding possibilities, each with advantages and disadvantages, plus a range of costs to consider. Weatherboards are available in several types of timber, as well as manufactured boards, such as fibre cement and hardboard. Vinyl cladding is a weatherboard look-alike. Other claddings you can use include timber shiplap and V-joint boards, plywood, fibre cement sheets and metal panels or sheets.

The cost of re-cladding varies widely. However, as a guide, re-cladding with most materials ranges from $8500 to well over $15,000 to supply and install cladding on an average three-bedroom, 110m2 single-storey house. Flashing materials, timber reveals or sills, windows, painting (where needed), and scaffolding will cost you extra.

When re-cladding, be careful not to destroy the features of your house – unless you really hate them! – otherwise you may end up with a bland result.

Weatherboards and sheets

As they are easy to work and affordable, weatherboards are suitable for DIY installation. They are available in a good range of timbers and other materials, in a variety of profiles from most good timber yards. Timber cladding is a natural insulator because of its cellular structure, and can be used in conjunction with batts and foil to give well-insulated walls.

Weatherboards are available in cedar, pre-primed and treated finger-jointed pine, Baltic pine, cypress pine and more. For vertical fixing there’s a range of shiplap and V-joint profiles. While timber will last quite a while untreated, it will turn grey and tend to split or check, so is best painted or oiled. The paint will have to be re-applied periodically, depending on the quality of paint and the preparation of the surface before painting.

Manufactured materials

Cladding is also available as manufactured boards and sheets such as fibre cement and hardboard. Plywood sheets come in various patterns, including some that look exactly the same as shiplap cladding.

Fibre cement boards are made of cellulose fibre, cement and fine sand, and are basically inert. For cladding, the boards start at 9.5mm in thickness in various patterns and profiles, and thicker boards are available. While fibre cement will not rot, it will stain, so is nearly always painted, and then it looks like normal weatherboards. It is also quite heavy. The other common boards are Weathertex, made of 97 per cent chipped and pulped timber from sustainably grown hardwood forests with three per cent natural wax. The weatherboards are available in 200 and 300mm widths, in a variety of patterns and profiles, and are supplied primed and ready to paint.

Metal cladding

Another option is to go back 150 years for inspiration and use metal cladding. It’s common on old country homes and shearing sheds, yet you can also use it on your home and be totally up-to-the-minute.

Steel has no insulation value in itself but in light colours will reflect some summer heat. As well as the normal corrugated steel, which is available in range of Colorbond colours, you can also use the miniature corrugated sheet (Mini Orb), which costs about double in material costs and is also available in a range of colours. It is essentially maintenance-free and for houses the sheets can be laid horizontally or vertically, but care needs to be taken in the way that they are joined. In modern cladding they are normally screwed in place, and must be installed to allow for the expansion and contraction of the metal, especially on walls that are in direct sunlight.

Add insulation

While some cladding can be fixed over the top of what’s there, if your walls need to be stripped back to the framing, or your home is an icebox in winter, take the opportunity to add bulk insulation batts and reflective foil sarking. This will increase both the energy efficiency and comfort of your home. Do this yourself, or have your cladding installer quote to do it for you. It’s also a good time to check that all your framing is in good condition.

Render it

Cement render is a spectacular way to transform your brick home. By rendering your house you can often bring a mishmash of surfaces such as brickwork, blocks, sheet materials and even weatherboards into a uniform whole.
While not a true cladding in its own right, render will certainly make a big difference to the look of the house. But consider that while brick is essentially maintenance-free, once rendered and painted, walls will need periodic repainting. Your biggest decision will be whether to retain or add sills, or remove them entirely. If windows are not defined, the final result may look a little dull. Even if you have weatherboard panels, they can be replaced with fibre cement blue board, which in turn can be rendered.

Getting the right fit

There is a range of cement and polymer renders to suit just about any surface. Traditional cement render is mixed on site and comprises cement, clean sand and hydrated lime. The lime makes the mix more workable and adds flexibility to minimise crazing or cracking. Polymer render comes premixed.
While you can add colour to both cement and polymer renders, getting a good match to paint colours is very difficult. Coloured cement render tends to be patchy and streaky, so for a uniform finish you are better off painting after the render has dried and cured.
Render is normally applied as two or three coats, with the final coat rubbed smooth. It takes two or three weeks to render a house, plus a few more for drying and curing, before painting. The costs of rendering an average three-bedroom, 110m² single storey house starts at about $10,000, with scaffolding and painting extra.

Vinyl cladding

The advantage of vinyl cladding is that it is lightweight, does not need painting and has a 50-year warranty. It looks like timber but does not need the maintenance – all you need do is clean it once in a while because of the grime that settles on all surfaces. Being a plastic, vinyl is not suited to bushfire-prone areas. It’s designed to go over the top of existing flat cladding – great if you have old fibro.

Vinyl cladding should always be fully supported as it is quite flexible, so if fixing to studs on a new home or extension, it’s best to nail up bracing plywood first.
The weatherboard-look cladding for walls includes its own styrene insulation, which gives it similar insulation properties to timber weatherboards. The normal thickness of insulation is 20mm, and aluminium foil sarking is an optional extra on wall panels.
Most vinyl is installed by licensed re-cladding companies and installation will take about a week. While vinyl cladding or siding is normally professionally installed, you can do it yourself.

Here's How

STEP 1
Prepare your walls by prising off all cover beads and any nails that protrude on wall face. Pull out nails. Wall should be completely flat.

STEP 2
Level and fix bottom starter channel in place, cut to suit your wall. In some cases, it’s installed to follow slope of land. Cut notches in channel to form right angles. Cladding fits into channels all the way around, which disguises any movement due to expansion gaps and contraction.

STEP 3
Fit cladding into channel and check it’s level. Drive nails through slots in panels, but leave head slightly proud so that boards can expand and contract freely. Otherwise they may buckle.

STEP 4
Cut cladding around pipes with snips. Because it’s so flexible, you can simply bend it into place.

STEP 5
Cutting to length or along panels is easy with a diamond blade in an angle grinder.

Cladding up close
Timber is the traditional weatherboard material. In addition there are the composite materials such as fibre cement and hardboard. Prices are for cladding an average three-bedroom, 110m² single-storey house.

Cedar weatherboards
Cedar is light and durable, but must be kept well coated with oil or paint to stop it becoming brittle in the Australian heat. Thin cedar weatherboards start from $10,000, but thicker shiplap profiles cost considerably more.
Baltic pine weatherboards
Baltic pine is a fine-grained softwood that is a little cheaper than using cedar. It must be painted and is not suitable to be in contact with the ground. The cost is about $10,000.
Pre-primed treated pine
Treated pine is quite durable and being pre-primed is ready to accept the final coats of acrylic exterior paints. The cost is about $15,000.
Hardboard cladding
Hardboard cladding is reconstituted from new growth hardwood and is 9.5mm thick. There are a number of designs, some of which ensure that your boards are automatically aligned. The cost starts at $10,000.
Fibre cement planks
Fibre cement has been around for over 30 years, and is available in planks for a weatherboard look. While it won’t rot, it does stain, so looks best if kept well painted. The cost starts from about $10,000.
Vinyl cladding
While most vinyl is sold on a supply and fix basis, you can buy materials for self-installation. The advantage is, it doesn’t need painting and, with the accessories and moulding available, it’s easy to achieve a good finish. The cost starts at $8500.
Steel sheets
There are steel products designed for walls, but you can also use many roofing products such as corrugated and mini corrugated sheets. Easy to fix in place, they are prefinished in a range of Colorbond colours so are maintenance-free. The cost starts at $12,000.