North Walsham Roofers installs and replaces exterior cladding in Cromer, helping homeowners choose the right material for walls that stay protected and look good for years.
Exterior cladding is a long-term decision. The material you choose affects how the building looks, how much maintenance you will do over the next decade, what the job costs upfront and how well the wall is protected. There is no single right answer, and anyone who tells you one material is always best for every home is oversimplifying.
What follows is an honest look at the main cladding options available to homeowners, with the real advantages and the genuine drawbacks of each. We fit all of these systems and we will tell you which suits your situation rather than pushing the one with the highest margin.
Timber is the traditional choice and it remains genuinely popular for good reason. When it is specified and installed correctly it looks excellent and performs well. The main profiles used in the UK are featheredge (also called waney-edge), shiplap, and square-edged boards. Featheredge is the most common on older homes.
Honest advantages: Timber is a natural product that looks at home on a wide range of property styles. It can be painted or stained to match almost any colour scheme. Damaged boards are straightforward to replace like-for-like in most cases. Softwood treated cladding is typically among the most affordable options by board metre.
Honest drawbacks: Softwood timber cladding needs re-treating every three to five years to stay in good condition. If that maintenance is skipped, the wood absorbs moisture, swells, splits and eventually rots. Untreated end grain at cut edges is the most common starting point for decay. Hardwood and modified timber products such as thermally treated pine require less maintenance but cost considerably more upfront - thermally modified timber cladding typically costs from around £40 per square metre for materials alone before fitting.
UPVC cladding boards are made to mimic the profile of timber shiplap or featheredge. They require no painting and no staining.
Honest advantages: UPVC is genuinely low-maintenance. Washing it down once a year is all it normally needs to stay clean. It will not rot, it is not affected by moisture in the same way as timber and the colour is stable for many years. For homeowners who do not want to think about re-treating walls every few years, UPVC is a practical choice.
Honest drawbacks: The colour range is more limited than with painted timber. On older systems the clip fixings can become brittle and snap, particularly after cold winters, causing boards to drop without warning. UPVC can look less convincing than real timber at close range, particularly on period properties. If a board is badly damaged it needs to be replaced rather than repaired. The material is also harder to recycle at end of life than timber.
Composite cladding is made from a mixture of wood fibre and polymer binders, pressed into boards that carry a factory-applied surface finish. The market has grown quickly and the quality varies considerably between manufacturers.
Honest advantages: Good-quality composite boards are highly resistant to moisture, frost damage and UV fading. They look closer to real timber than UPVC profiles and the surface finish can hold its colour for ten to twenty years depending on the product grade. Composite boards do not need painting or staining during that period. They are also dimensionally stable, meaning they are less prone to the movement that causes gaps in timber systems.
Honest drawbacks: Composite boards cost more upfront than either timber softwood or standard UPVC. Budget composite products from lower-quality manufacturers can fade unevenly and develop surface mould in shaded areas. It is important to ask about the specific product being used and the manufacturer's stated surface life. When boards reach end of life they are not as straightforwardly recyclable as solid timber.
Cladding boards are sometimes compared with thin-coat render systems. Render applied over an insulated board (external wall insulation systems) is a different type of work involving different trades and different planning considerations. Board cladding and render are not like-for-like comparisons: cladding sits proud of the wall on a batten frame, whereas render is applied directly to the wall surface. If you are considering both options, they are worth pricing separately as the structural approach is quite different.
Whichever material you choose for the face of the cladding, the layers behind it matter just as much for long-term performance. A breather membrane fixed to the wall, with a ventilated cavity created by counter-battens, allows any moisture that gets past the boards to drain and dry out rather than sitting against the masonry. Without this detail, even the best cladding boards will eventually cause problems by trapping moisture against the wall.
On many older Norfolk homes the original render or brickwork can be sound enough to clad over directly once it has been checked, cleaned and any loose material dealt with. On properties where the wall surface is in poor condition, some remedial work before fixing battens will be needed.
Most homes do not require planning permission for a straight re-clad in a similar material and colour. However, if you are changing the material significantly, working on a listed building, or in a conservation area, it is worth checking with your local planning authority before committing. We can advise on what is likely to need an application based on what we see when we inspect the property.
We carry out exterior cladding installation and replacement in Cromer and the surrounding area, including North Walsham, Aylsham and Norwich. If you want a straight conversation about which material makes most sense for your property and budget, call us to arrange a survey.
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