If you are planning exterior cladding work on your home in Littleport, knowing exactly what the process involves helps you plan properly and makes sure nothing is missed.
Call any time. Calls are answered day and night and passed straight to our roofers.
A cladding installation or replacement that is rushed through, or where key preparatory steps are skipped, will cause problems long before the material's expected lifespan is up. Good cladding work follows a clear sequence. Each stage depends on the previous one being done correctly. At Downham Market Roofers we install and replace cladding on homes using timber, composite and fibre cement boards, and the process is broadly the same regardless of which material is going on.
Before any material is ordered or scaffolding is booked, the job needs a proper look. This means walking round the property and assessing the existing wall condition, the state of any existing cladding or render, the condition of the substrate, and what access will be needed. A quick visual from ground level is not enough - particularly on a two-storey elevation where the top section is not visible clearly from below.
At survey stage, we check for any secondary issues that need dealing with before cladding goes on. A leaking gutter or downpipe, failed flashings, or damaged brickwork that is letting water in will all compromise new cladding if they are not fixed first. Finding them at the survey stage means they can be priced and dealt with as part of the programme, not as an unpleasant surprise mid-job.
The survey also determines the specification - which material and profile is most appropriate, what fixing method is needed, whether a ventilated cavity is required and what thickness of batten achieves that, and whether any additional insulation is going in behind the boards.
Most cladding work on a two-storey house requires scaffold. For a single-storey extension or outbuilding, hop-up platforms or tower scaffold may be sufficient. The access arrangement needs to be in place before the preparatory work starts, not just before the boards go on, because prep work on upper elevations needs to be done safely and properly too.
If existing cladding is being replaced, it is stripped off at this stage. When timber cladding comes off, the condition of the battens, counter-battens, breather membrane and the wall behind needs to be assessed carefully. Rotten battens must be replaced. A torn, perished or missing breather membrane must be replaced before anything goes back on. There is no value in spending money on new boards if the layer behind them has failed.
On a new installation over masonry or render, the wall surface needs to be dry, sound and free of anything that would prevent the battens from sitting flat and fixing securely. Any loose render is hacked off and made good. Any damp patches in the wall need to be traced to their source and addressed before the cladding goes on - covering a damp wall with cladding traps the problem and accelerates it.
The breather membrane is fixed directly to the wall or structural sheathing. It is lapped correctly at horizontal joints - bottom over top in the same direction as roof felt, so any water that gets behind the boards runs down over the laps rather than behind them. The membrane is taken into all reveals and openings and dressed to prevent water bypassing it at the edges.
Counter-battens are fixed through the membrane into the wall structure, creating the ventilated cavity. The cavity allows any moisture that gets past the outer boards to drain away and the wall to breathe. On most installations the cavity is 25-50mm deep. This ventilated layer is what prevents interstitial condensation from becoming a long-term problem in the wall construction.
The horizontal battens that the cladding boards fix to are then installed over the counter-battens, set out to the correct course height for the chosen profile. Getting the set-out right before the first board goes on saves a lot of time and avoids awkward cuts or out-of-level courses near windows and doors.
Cladding boards are started at the bottom of the wall and worked upward, course by course. The starter course sets the line for everything above it, so it needs to be checked for level carefully. On an older building where the damp proof course is not perfectly level all the way round, small adjustments need to be made at this stage.
Fixings are either face-fixed through the board or secret-fixed into a groove, depending on the profile and material. Stainless steel fixings are used throughout - galvanised fixings can stain light-coloured boards and corrode faster in exposed conditions. Expansion gaps are left at board ends where specified by the manufacturer, particularly for composite and fibre cement boards which have defined thermal movement tolerances.
All vertical joints are positioned over a batten so both board ends are supported. Boards are not left to span a gap unsupported at a joint, as this is a common cause of cracking and water ingress at vertical junctions.
This is the stage that separates a good cladding job from a mediocre one. The trim pieces, stop beads, corner sections, window and door surround trims, and top-edge flashings are all there to stop water getting behind the boards at every junction and termination point. Each one needs to be measured, cut and fitted accurately.
At the head of windows and door openings, a drip flashing directs water away from the frame and onto the face of the cladding. At the base of the wall, an insect mesh or closure strip is fitted at the base of the cavity to prevent birds and insects entering while still allowing airflow. At the top of the wall, the flashing takes the cladding under the soffit or into the eaves detail without leaving a gap that rain can enter.
Mastic or sealant is used at junctions where the cladding meets a different material - typically at window and door frames. A good-quality external-grade sealant is used, tooled to a neat finish, not simply squeezed in and left. Poor sealant application is one of the most common sources of water ingress in otherwise well-installed cladding.
Timber cladding that is supplied bare or pre-primed needs finishing coats applied on site once it is fixed. Two coats of a quality exterior wood stain or paint system are standard, with the bottom course getting particular attention as it is the most exposed to splash-back. Some installers cut this to one coat - it is worth asking specifically what the coating schedule is.
Pre-finished composite and fibre cement boards usually need no additional treatment at the face, but cut edges on fibre cement should be sealed with an appropriate primer to prevent moisture absorption at the cut, particularly on horizontal cuts at the base of boards.
Once the cladding and all trim is complete, a final walkround checks every elevation for anything missed - an unsecured board end, a gap in the sealant line, a trim piece that needs an additional fixing, or any board that has picked up a mark during installation. Scaffold boards and any offcuts are cleared from the site. Any damage to paths, planting or garden features caused by access equipment is made good.
If you are having cladding installed on your home in Littleport, call us to arrange a survey and we can walk you through exactly what the job involves for your specific property.
No obligation · We'll call you to arrange a free visit
Call any time. Calls are answered day and night and passed straight to our roofers.
