North Walsham Roofers carries out exterior cladding installations in Honing from start to finish, and this page walks you through exactly what that process looks like so you know what to expect at every stage.
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Exterior cladding protects your walls from rain, wind and frost while giving the building a cleaner, more consistent appearance. But the material choice only tells part of the story. A good cladding system depends on every stage of the installation being carried out in the right order, with the right preparation behind the boards. A job done without proper preparation will fail, regardless of how good the boards themselves are.
Below is a clear account of how a cladding job should progress, from the first look at the wall through to clearing the site at the end. We work this way on homes and outbuildings in Honing and the surrounding area.
Before any materials are ordered, the existing wall needs to be properly assessed. On a reclad job, that means removing a section of the old boarding to see what is behind it. On a new installation onto a bare wall, the survey focuses on the substrate condition, what fixings the wall will accept, and whether there are any penetrations (pipes, cables, vents) that will need to be worked around.
The survey also establishes the scope. How many elevations are being clad? What is the total area in square metres? Are there any first-floor sections that will need scaffolding? Are there bays, dormers or porches that create awkward junctions? All of this feeds into the specification and the cost before work starts.
A survey should always include checking the condition of any existing breather membrane. If the membrane is torn, absent or the wrong type for the system being installed, it needs to be replaced. No amount of high-quality boarding compensates for a missing membrane behind it.
Once the scope is agreed, materials are ordered to the correct quantity with a modest allowance for cutting waste. Underordering means delays mid-job when a board run is short. Overordering significantly inflates cost. A precise measured take-off from the survey drives the material order.
Access is planned at the same time. Ground-floor elevations are normally reachable from hop-up platforms or low-level tower scaffolding. First-floor work and gable ends above the eaves need erected scaffold to allow the work to be done safely and to the correct standard. Rushing cladding from a ladder is not a safe or accurate way to work at height.
On a reclad, the existing boarding comes off first. Boards are stripped back systematically to expose the batten structure. The battens are checked for rot: soft or discoloured timber is removed and the cause identified before new battens go on in its place.
Any debris and old fixings are cleared from the wall face at this stage. Fixings that have been left proud of the surface can damage or distort the new membrane, so the wall face needs to be clean and flat before anything new is applied.
A breather membrane is fixed directly to the wall face before any battens or boards are fitted. This layer allows moisture vapour to escape from the wall outward while preventing liquid water from driving back in. It is essential to the performance of the whole system.
The membrane is lapped correctly at all horizontal joints (upper over lower, like roof felt) and taped at vertical joints. At window and door reveals, the membrane is carefully dressed and held so that it does not create a water trap at the junction. Getting this stage right is not glamorous work, but failing it creates problems that are expensive to fix once boarding covers it.
Vertical treated timber battens are fixed directly through the membrane and into the wall. Their purpose is to create a ventilated cavity between the membrane and the back of the boards. Air movement in this cavity carries away moisture that gets behind the boards, which is how the system avoids the trapped-damp failures common in older cladding installations.
Horizontal counterbattens are then fixed across the vertical battens. These provide the fixing surface for the boards and determine the gauge (the amount of each board exposed to the weather). The gauge is calculated at this stage and marked out accurately, because any inconsistency shows clearly in the finished elevation.
Boarding starts at the base of the elevation and works upward, with each course overlapping the one below to shed water away from the wall. The bottom course is set level across the full width of the elevation before a single fixing goes in above it. If the first board is not level, every course above it follows the error.
At external corners, boards are either mitred to a clean junction or finished with a purpose-made corner trim, depending on the profile and the homeowner's preference. At internal corners, a stop bead or return board is used. These details are cut and fitted carefully because they are visible and because they are the points most likely to admit water if the joint is not tight.
Around windows and doors, the boarding is brought up to the reveal and a flashing or trim piece is fitted over the top of the board to prevent water tracking behind at the head. This is a common point of failure on poorly installed systems and needs to be done before the next course of boards covers the junction.
Once the boarding is complete, all exposed end grain on cut boards is treated with end-grain preservative or sealant. On timber systems, any exposed nail or screw heads are filled and the surface is prepared for the first coat of paint or stain if required. On UPVC or composite systems, trims and closure pieces are checked and any sealant joints at penetrations are finished neatly.
A walk-round inspection checks that every junction is tight, that no boards have lifted at the fixing point, and that the vertical and horizontal alignment is consistent across the elevation.
Old boards, membrane offcuts, packaging and fixings are cleared from the site. Scaffolding is struck once the inspection is complete and access is no longer needed. The homeowner is walked around the finished elevation so they can see what has been done and ask any questions about ongoing maintenance.
We carry out cladding installations in Honing and across the villages served from North Walsham. If you want to understand what a cladding job on your home will involve before you commit to it, call us to arrange a site survey. We will walk you through the work at every stage.
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