Everything You Need to Know About Recycled Timber Cladding

Unless you’re a builder, or an architect it’s likely that you’ve not heard of Cladding. Despite the fact that it sounds rather funny, it’s actually a fairly straightforward thing to explain. You know how the outside of buildings generally have a uniform appearance to them? Maybe brick work or wood boards? Basically, a covering that means you don’t see all the frame work and insulation and wiring running through your house? That is “Cladding”, the “skin” of the house, and that cladding can be just as unique and beautiful as any house.

Benefits of Cladding

The foremost benefit to having Cladding is that it protects your house from the wind and rain. A house’s structural integrity is insanely important, because a house that isn’t structurally sound will collapse, possibly resulting in injury or death. Many of the things that cause a decrease in structural integrity are natural, such as wind and rain. Cladding prevents the sun, wind, and rain from beating upon the structural elements of your house, keeping the structure of your home safe from rot and degradation.

Cladding also provides acoustic benefits, providing a small shield against excess noise from outside, or keeping noise inside a space if you’re using interior cladding.

Another great benefit is that it’s a good form of insulation. Homes will be cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter, as cladding acts an as an additional layer of non-porous material that keeps in warmth and cool when you need it most.

Cladding Types

There are lots of different kinds of cladding, and they all have strengths and weaknesses. For example, Vinyl is an extremely popular type of cladding, due to its high resistance, low maintenance, cheap cost, and long lifespan. However, the material is non-renewable, and also contains carcinogens which can be harmful to the community should the material catch fire, also being a fairly new material on the cladding market, we don’t really know all the risks associated with it.

Then there are “safer” options, like Stone and brick. These are both functionally great, as they are hardy against weather and insects, both make for great thermal masses for passively solar homes, and both look good. However sourcing stone for cladding is un-sustainable environmentally, and making bricks has a huge energy cost, with brick companies being responsible for 5% of global carbon emissions.

That’s basically the gist of all cladding options out there. The best protection comes with environmentally harmful impacts, and the sustainable options can be potentially detrimental to our health.

Recycled Timber Cladding?

Timber cladding is an exception to this rule, however, and this comes through the fact that it’s the most controllable of all the cladding options. When you use timber or recycled timber cladding, you’re getting material that is sustainable, and also completely customisable to suit your aesthetic. On its own, timber cladding gives beautiful results, with swirling pattens and dancing tones of light and dark creating a gorgeous whirlpool of vibrant earthy tones. Timber cladding is a great insulator, looks good, and when treated properly, can stand up to the elements just as well as any other cladding.

However, there’s no such thing as perfection, so of course there’s some draw backs, but they are far outweighed by the pros. Basically, in the cladding world there are a few unsavoury types. These unscrupulous companies ignore environmental restrictions and practices and just hack away at forested areas, causing mass destruction to forest sites and the flora and fauna that live there. Also some companies treat their wood with harmful chemicals and pesticides, rather than using alternative green methods that keep people safe. This can all be avoided by doing your due diligence before settling on a cladding.

However, as specialists of recycled timber, Jaks Timber is more than happy to help you out. We offer full cladding services, and our timber is sourced ethically and renewably. We can handle internal and external cladding jobs, and we absolutely love what we do. What’s more you can be sure that we won’t be using any harmful chemicals and putting you and your family at risk. You can contact us here or call us on 03 9311 0541 and we’ll be more than happy to answer any questions you might have!