Custom Orb looks great. But.....your flashings and trims can cost a lot of money and labour to finish well. If you use it in a few select areas that need little or no flashings then it works better. It becomes even more of a 'cool' feature then as well. Installing it vertical rather than horizontal could be much easier to install as well. We cladded our house in it about 7 years ago. While it looks great I probably wouldn't do it again due to the cost (and mucking around..) and also the fact that a change of colour isn't a paint brush away...... My preference would be FC sheet with battens over the joins, a bit of Custom Orb in a few selected areas that are hard to maintain/paint/etc and good old face brick. Recycled bricks rather than new would be a nice feature as well. Face brick needs little maintenance and doesn't damage easily from kids running into with bikes, etc..

Yes, our harsh Australian environment does hammer our external finishes but if exposed timber is coated with a good quality finish initially ( i recommend 4 coats minimum ) then an ongoing maintenance coat every couple of years, your timber can still look great many years down the track. People just need to understand if you want that beautiful natural timber look you have to put time in to maintain it.

Hi Katrine, The renovation went really well - thanks! It's been finished for more than a year now - hard to believe!! I could only find one pic of the cladding that was easy for me to upload - here it is. We've been really happy with the FC cladding and how it looks. We replaced all the existing exterior weatherboards (which ran on an angle parallel to the roof) with the same Duragroove FC cladding that we covered the new extension in. Our builders said it is very easy to work with and it certainly went up very quickly. Their only comment was that you can end up with a fair bit of wastage as it often gets damaged in transit. The supplier they used said this is pretty common, however, and so they actually allow for it and oversupply somewhat to allow a proportion of damaged sheets - sorry I can't quantify this aspect for you. The cladding was very easy and quick to paint and we're very happy with how it has come up. If you're interested in details, it's painted in a new Colourbond colour called Gully. The darker trim (fascias, gutters, downpipes etc) is Woodland Grey. Good luck with your decision making. If you'd like more photos, let me know and I'll try to take and upload a few more. Cheers, Kate

Consider also Bondor panels. They are two panels with insulation sandwiched between. They have a stucco type finish for the exterior walls.