Cambridge Roofers fits exterior cladding in Milton and nearby villages, and this page walks you through exactly what the job involves from the moment we arrive to the day we pack up and leave.
Call any time. Calls are answered day and night and passed straight to our roofers.
A lot of homeowners agree to a cladding project without a clear picture of what it involves day to day. That leads to surprises - some pleasant, some not. This page goes through the process in the order it happens, so you know what to expect at each stage and what questions to ask.
Before any price is agreed, the wall or walls need to be looked at properly. A quick look from the pavement is not enough. The survey should check the condition of the existing wall surface, the pointing or render if applicable, whether there is any existing insulation, and how the eaves, verges, windows and door frames are currently detailed - because all of those junctions need to be made good when the new cladding goes on.
If the existing cladding is being stripped off rather than over-clad, the survey should also check the condition of any batten framework and breather membrane behind it. Rotted battens or a failed membrane need to be addressed before new cladding goes on, and that affects the price.
Any honest surveyor will flag these unknowns before work starts rather than raise them as extras once the scaffolding is up.
For any full-elevation project, scaffolding is the first thing on site. The scaffold needs to give safe working access to the full wall height with a working platform close enough to the wall to handle and fix the boards accurately - typically within about 300 millimetres of the face.
On tighter plots or where the scaffold needs to span a boundary, it is worth checking with your neighbours before the scaffolders arrive. Access to their side may be needed, and giving them advance notice avoids unnecessary friction.
The scaffolding cost is a fixed element that does not scale neatly with wall area. This is why tackling more than one elevation - or combining the cladding with a roof or soffit job - while the scaffold is up nearly always makes financial sense.
If there is existing cladding, it comes off first. Each board is removed carefully to avoid damage to the structure behind. Once stripped, the breather membrane is inspected - and replaced if it has degraded or was never installed correctly. The batten framework is checked for rot and any soft timber removed and replaced before anything new is fixed.
If you are cladding a bare masonry wall for the first time, the surface needs to be clean, structurally sound and free of loose mortar or render. Any damp patches on the wall itself need to be identified and resolved - cladding over an active damp problem does not fix it.
Where external insulation is part of the specification, rigid boards are fixed directly to the wall at this stage, before the batten framework goes on. The type and thickness of insulation affects the projection of the finished cladding face, which in turn affects how window and door reveals are detailed.
The batten framework is the hidden element that determines whether cladding performs well or fails prematurely. Vertical battens are fixed to the wall at regular centres - typically 400 or 600 millimetres - to create a ventilated cavity between the wall and the cladding boards. This cavity allows any moisture that gets behind the boards to drain away and evaporate rather than sitting against the wall.
The battens must be level, plumb and consistently spaced, because the boards are fixed to them. Any variation in the batten framework shows up as an uneven face on the finished cladding. Treated timber battens are standard; on coastal or very exposed elevations a more durable batten material may be appropriate.
The boards are fixed working from the bottom of the wall upward. The first course is set out carefully from a level line - if the ground or the eaves line is not level, a decision needs to be made about which to follow, because following the wrong one makes the whole elevation look wrong. It is worth asking your installer to spot this at the set-out stage and agree the approach with you before fixing starts.
Each board is pre-drilled or snapped into its fixing clip depending on the system. Timber boards are typically face-fixed with stainless steel screws or nails - using stainless steel matters, because standard steel fixings stain the face of the board as they corrode. Composite and fibre cement boards may use a concealed clip system so no fixings are visible on the face.
Joints between boards need movement gaps appropriate to the material. Timber in particular needs room to expand and contract; over-tight joints force the boards to buckle as they take up moisture. The correct gap is specified by the manufacturer and should not be guessed.
The board field is the easy part. The details are where the job is won or lost. Every window, door, corner, soffit line and roof verge needs to be trimmed and sealed correctly. Water gets in at junctions - not usually through the flat face of the boards.
Window and door reveals need to be extended with new sub-sill, jamb and head trims if insulation has been added, or re-detailed in any case to ensure a continuous weather seal at the perimeter. Corners can be finished with purpose-made corner trims or by mitring the boards - both are acceptable, but mitre joints on timber need to be carefully detailed and maintained to avoid opening up over time.
Soffits, fascias and bargeboards are addressed at this stage too. The junction between the top of the cladding and the underside of the eaves is one of the most common water entry points on older re-clad jobs, and getting it right involves co-ordinating the fascia board, the cavity closer and the top trim of the cladding so there is no open gap for water or pests to enter.
Before the scaffold comes down, the whole elevation should be walked and checked. Every joint, every fixing, every trim detail and every sealant run should be inspected. Sealant joints at windows and corners are squeezed and tooled to ensure full contact and a clean finish. Any board faces with construction marks are cleaned. Fixings that have not been driven flush are corrected at this stage.
The scaffold is then struck, and the site is cleared of all off-cuts, packaging and fixing debris. On a tidy job, the only evidence left is the new cladding on the wall.
We fit timber (softwood and hardwood), composite, fibre cement and metal cladding systems, matched to the building, the budget and the planning context. If the property is in or near a conservation area, planning advice should be sought before material and colour choices are fixed. We also work on properties in Cambridge, Ely, Newmarket and across the surrounding area.
Call us to arrange a survey on your Milton property. We will go through the process above with you, confirm what the job involves and give you a clear price before any work is committed.
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Call any time. Calls are answered day and night and passed straight to our roofers.
