Cladding options to enhance the style of your home

Once upon a time, the pine weatherboard reigned supreme, and is still one of the most popular cladding options for our homes. Nowadays, the traditional horizontal weatherboard has been turned, quite literally, on its head, with fibre cement and composite board options allowing for vertical installations, an increasingly popular choice for design-savvy homeowners up and down the country.

Aside from their aesthetic benefits, these modern-day products are less susceptible to the high-salt, intense UV conditions of our coastal environs, and they can be finished in a larger variety of colours, including the darker shades we Kiwi prefer.

In some instances fibre cement and composite boards are comparable in price to the traditional alternative, with both the composite board product and pine weatherboards coming in at around $250 per square metre, while fibre cement products start in the low-to-mid $300 per square metre range.

While we’re talking timber cladding options, let us not forget cedar. Available in a variety of widths and thicknesses, cedar can add real depth to your external cladding — especially when teamed with other external cladding products. With regular maintenance, the rich cedar grain will continue to look good for years, or it can be left to naturally ‘silver’ over time. If cedar is your timber of choice, expect to pay in the low-to-mid $300 per square metre range.

If durability coupled with almost zero maintenance is the deciding factor, then look no further than brick. These days, there is a large array of choices in terms of size, colour and style. Bricks offer enhanced noise and thermal insulation, are fire resistant and only need the occasional wash down to keep them looking good. Expect to pay around $200-plus per square metre for standard bricks with prices rising depending on the size and style of the bricks.