Timber External Cladding Will Rot Eventually
Timber external wall cladding, protected only by paint, can be very susceptible to damage by the weather over time.
Periods of wet weather when the timber has little chance to dry out, followed by warm sunshine baking the surface, will eventually cause the paint to crack and peel.
This exposes the bare timber cladding to the elements which will result in rot, fungal damage and decay which could be concealing problem areas of brickwork.
In time the cladding will need to be replaced but replacing it in timber rather than uPVC won’t be much cheaper, and at some time in the future you will probably have to replace it again.
Roofline Products include two main types of cladding. They have either an extruded hollow section or a hard outer surface of PVCu-e on a cellular, or foamed, internal core and are available in ship-lap or open-V style.
PVCu-e: – Unplasticised Expanded Polyvinyl Chloride
Cellular PVC profiles are manufactured by way of a co-extrusion process during which high impact PVCu-e compound is extruded onto the outer surface of a foam PVCu-e cellular core.
During the process it is formed to the required shape and surface texture, then cooled and cut to size. It can be manufactured with a flat glossy surface, a textured wood grain effect surface or be finished with a bonded laminate which gives the appearance of timber.
PVCu-e is an excellent insulator and is resistant to acids, alkalis and atmospheric pollution.
Durability
The tough outer skin of PVCu-e cellular profiles used for external wall cladding provides an excellent all-year-round weathering capability, though some fading may occur over a number of years.
This is due to a natural weathering process but any slight colour changes or dulling of the surface should be uniform over the whole of the exposed surface.
Colours
Soffit, fascia, barge boards and cladding are readily available in a wide range of colour and texture finishes including
- brilliant white,
- cream,
- black and brown (both with flat or wood grain textured surfaces) and
- realistic woodgrain effect laminate finishes such as mahogany,
- oak,
- rosewood and
- black ash.
In most cases, Roofline installation companies will offer uPVC windows, uPVC doors and uPVC conservatories in matching colour and texture finishes to their fascias, soffits and cladding products.
Gutters and down spouts are readily available in white, brown and black but some manufacturers produce gutters and downspouts to match other woodgrain effect roofline products.
Health & Safety
The installation of roofline products on two and three storey properties inevitably means working at height and an increasing emphasis on the health and safety of installers has resulted in a proliferation of different styles of access equipment.
Simply working from ladders is no longer acceptable in many situations and companies which cut their prices to the bone often put their installers at risk by not providing adequate access equipment for them to use.
That doesn’t mean that expensive scaffolding needs to be erected as there is a wide range of custom-designed equipment available which can be erected and dismantled relatively quickly.
New Roofline Products
As to be expected, new variations of roofline products are always being introduced and some roofline installation companies have started to offer retro-style products such as imitation cast iron gutters and down spouts.
Another retro-style product, though not strictly belonging to the roofline product range, is Mock Tudor Effect uPVC Boards in black, oak and mahogany effects, to replace existing rotting timber beams.
This is not an extruded product as they are generally hand finished and stained to create an authentic reproduction of English oak with a grained texture, knots and other natural imperfections of real wood.