If you are planning exterior cladding for your Sprowston home, here is exactly what the process involves, from the initial assessment through to clearing the site at the end.
Call any time. Calls are answered day and night and passed straight to our roofers.
A lot of homeowners go into a cladding job with little idea of what to expect. How long will it take? What prep work happens before the panels go on? Will the house be exposed at any point? What happens if something unexpected turns up on the wall? Understanding the sequence from start to finish means you can plan around the work, ask the right questions, and spot if something is being skipped that should not be.
A proper cladding job starts with a thorough look at the wall, not a glance from the pavement and a price per square metre. A surveyor or installer should check the substrate - whether the wall is brick, block or rendered - and assess its condition. They are looking for movement, active damp, areas of blown render, soft or crumbling mortar, and anything that might affect how the cladding is fixed or whether any prep work is needed first.
Window reveals, door frames, corners, soffits and any pipework or utilities on the wall are all noted at this stage. These junctions are where cladding jobs most often look unfinished if they are not planned carefully from the outset. A good survey takes its time and produces specific notes, not a rough sketch.
The survey is also where you discuss the material choice, the colour and profile, and whether any insulation is being added behind the cladding. If you are adding rigid insulation between the battens, the implications for window and door reveals need to be worked out now, before ordering begins.
After the survey, a written quotation should set out what is included, what material is being used (brand, profile, colour), what prep work is in the price, how junctions and corners are to be finished, and what is excluded. Read this carefully. Common exclusions include remedial work to the substrate found once cladding begins, replacement of rotted window frames, and any work above or below the cladding area.
If the quote does not specify the product, ask. Two quotes at different prices may be for genuinely different quality boards, not just different margins. The cheapest UPVC cladding profile is noticeably thinner than a mid-range one, and the difference shows over time.
Once you accept the quote, materials are ordered. Lead times vary by product and supplier, particularly for composite boards in less common colours. Your installer should give you a realistic timeline at this point. Rushing this stage is how wrong materials get fitted.
For two-storey homes, scaffold is needed to work safely above head height. The scaffold goes up before any wall preparation begins. For single-storey work, a tower or hop-up platform may be sufficient. Your installer should be clear about what access equipment is being used and whether scaffold costs are included in the quote.
Neighbours should be notified if scaffold overhangs shared boundaries or a public pavement. This is the installer's responsibility to arrange, but it is worth confirming it has been done.
This is the stage most often underestimated in price and time. The existing wall face needs to be in a suitable condition before battens or direct-fix brackets go on. Common preparation tasks include:
If a wall is badly out of plumb, the battened framework can compensate to a degree, but this takes more time and care. A wall with significant structural movement - not just surface cracking - needs to be assessed by a structural engineer before cladding goes over it.
Most residential cladding systems are fixed to a treated timber or aluminium batten framework that is itself fixed back to the wall. The battens run either horizontally or vertically depending on the direction the cladding boards run, and they create a small air gap between the wall and the back of the cladding. This cavity allows any moisture that gets in to drain and escape rather than being trapped.
Fixings into the wall must hit masonry or solid block, not just render. Fixings into render alone will not hold the system long-term. This is why surveying the substrate properly at the start matters so much.
If insulation is being added, rigid insulation boards are fitted between the battens at this stage, cut tightly around fixings and at junctions to minimise thermal bridging.
Panels are fitted from the bottom upwards, with each board interlocking or overlapping the one below. The starting course must be level and straight - errors at the base amplify as the installation rises. Corners are finished with purpose-made corner trims rather than mitred panel ends, which rarely stay tight over time as the material moves with temperature changes.
Window and door reveals are lined with matching or complementary trim profiles, and all edges are sealed against water ingress. Any pipework that cannot be relocated is boxed out neatly with matching material.
Complex elevations with multiple openings, bay windows or decorative features take longer and require more cutting and detailing.
Before scaffold comes down, the installer should walk the elevation and check for any panels that are not fully clipped home, any unsealed joints or gaps at trims, and any visible fixings that should be covered. This is also the point to check that any guttering or downpipes that were removed to allow the work have been refitted correctly and are draining as they should.
Do not let scaffold come down until you have had a chance to look at the work yourself. Once access is gone, snagging items become much more expensive to put right.
A tidy site at the end is a basic expectation. Off-cuts, packaging, old render debris and scaffold fittings should all leave with the installer. Any damage to paths, lawns or planting caused by the scaffold base plates should be noted before the team leaves.
Cladding work is a natural point to replace timber fascias and soffits with UPVC, since the scaffold is already up and the labour is on site. Guttering can be inspected and replaced at the same time. Combining this work often reduces the overall cost compared to doing it separately.
Poringland Roofers carry out exterior cladding across Sprowston and the surrounding area. Call us to arrange a site visit and we will walk you through the process, the options and the likely timescales 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.
