Which exterior cladding and colours should I choose?

3 years ago

last modified: 3 years ago

we are undertaking a substantial renovation which will change the roofline from a flat roof to a skillion roof. we need to decide on both colours and cladding and are getting into a confused state about it all.

while we both like a dark roof we have decided something like shale gray will be the best option given the climate etc...we are in the hills district in Sydney so it gets quite hot. The raked ceiling inside will be 4.2 metres so any help cooling is prob good.

we were originally thinking monument matt seamed cladding for the rear of the house as this will be the modern half with large bifold windows etc.....

the front is where we get into problems...we want to incorporate the dark colour but dont want to be offensive from the road. all the surrounding houses are blonde/brown brick.

we had thought the western half of the house to be axon cladding (in monument) for the garage front, above the lounge/porch area and then for costing we were going to bag over the existing brick on the eastern front - but what to do above the cladding above the existing windows?? and what colour? we had thought about a light grey colour...

i really like the idea of timber cladding over the eastern part...but it comes down to cost......

the western wall would need to be a light colour as it does get full full sun in the afternoon......

then there is the question on roof/gutter/fascia...and windows......

we thought the dark cladding with silver windows and lighter roof would be nice....my kitchen is going to be white and have a bifold window in it at the back so i didnt think a black window would find its place in there....

please help....very confused....

happy for any advice or suggestions.....

the details on the plans below in regards to the cladding are not final as we are still trying to figure out what we want....

Featured Answer

ddarroch

3 years ago

Hi Tracy,

Best of luck with the renovation. It looks like a very interesting & attractive project, not the average McMansion you see nowadays.

Sorry, I won't talk to much about material & colour choices. Other than to say that yes, dark colours will absorb heat, making your insulation work harder, & your home hotter. So good choice keeping the colour of the roof light. This will not only keep your home a bit cooler, it'll keep your whole neighbourhood a bit cooler.

Dark coloured materials - particularly those with high thermal mass (like roofing tiles, bitumen, concrete) - will absorb the heat from the sun, re-radiating it at night. Do this collectively, as a population, & you have a problem. You warm entire cities. Google the 'urban heat island' effect.

Sydney is actually 4-5C hotter in summer than if it was still farmland. This is nothing to do with global warming - though that's obviously happening too - this is purely about the fact that we have our cities in dark coloured bitumen, concrete, & roof our homes with dark coloured tiles.

So come Saturday - which will be blazing hot in the hills district - you can thank all the McMansions, with their dark tiled roofs, for that extra free degrees of heat.

So well done for looking into a lighter coloured colourbond roof. Not only will you come be cooler, but so will your neighbourhood.

Looks like a home with great bones, on a lovely wide-frontage block of land, with a perfect aspect. A large northern aspect (for light, warmth in winter, & privacy). A large southern aspect. Shorter eastern & western aspects, which is great. As the sun is low in the sky in these directions, & very difficult to shade as eaves are ineffective.

But I do see problems with the glazing, which will add to increased heat in summer.

Firstly, I do love clerestory (highlight) windows. Particularly when they're north facing, shaded by eaves, & used in difficult conditions, to get northern light in the home.

But your clerestory windows are east facing. Their small eaves will do nothing to shade them. So they'll be in full sun, for the entirety of the morning. Adding to your home's heat load in summer. Individually these windows aren't large, but collectively, they add up to a pretty large area. Possibly up to 3 times the area of the other eastern window.

The sun produces a lot of heat. Approximately 1kW per sqm in summer. So if you have 5 sqm of unshaded glass, you may be letting in up to 5kW of heat. That's the same as a good sized heater blasting away over summer!

In winter, not only is the sun weaker, but it's never actually directly east. Rising in the NE, moving across the northern sky, setting in the NW. So these eastern windows will heat the home far, far more in summer than they will in winter. In winter, as glass is such a terrible insulator, they'll just leak heat. Particularly, as they're up near the ceiling (hot air rises).

So I'd suggest thinking very carefully about the role of these clerestory windows, & reducing their numbers if possible. I'm guessing they may light a central hallway, which is important. But at the rear of the home, which will receive northern light, they're not important, & will only add to summer heat. You may decide that only 3 of these windows play an important role, eliminating 5 windows, reducing your summer heat load, possibly by a couple of kW. As glass is expensive, this should also save you money.

I'd consider investing that money in window treatments for the remaining clerestory windows, if they're not already done. Using low SHGC (solar heat gain coefficient) glass, like low-e, to reduce the heat of the sun through the glass. Possibly double glazed, to reduce winter heat losses, depending on what area of the home these windows are in. If heat is your main concern I'd certainly look at making these clerestory windows openable. As they are up near the ceiling, it's a great idea to use the stack effect (hot air rises) to dump heat from the home on summer night. Even when there's no breeze outside, opening these windows, & lower windows (say in bedrooms), will create air movement. Hotter air being expelled or the clerestory windows, cooler air being drawn in through the bedroom windows. You could look at manual winders, which are annoying, or a motorised system, which isn't cheap.

Next, the western window. Hard to tell in the elevation, but it's it full length, down to the floor? it looks pretty large. 4sqm, that's up to 4kW of heat! But what role does this window, or glass door play? Does it really have to be there, as there's plenty of northern glass, close by. I'd be aiming at removing this western glass. Removing a lot of unwanted heat from the home. If a doorway is required here, look for an unglazed door, if a window is required, look for a far smaller one. Me, I'd be looking to remove it entirely. Reducing summer heat load, & saving in cost.

Next, the large glazed window/door in the NE corner. This glass only has a small eave above it, not the pergola. The eave looks far too small to shade this entire window in summer. So it looks like the lower portion of this window will be unshaded for much of the day in summer, something you definitely don't want. Again, reducing the size of the glazed area (turning it into a normal height window) will reduce summer heat loads, & reduce costs.

I do feel that the home is over-glazed a bit. Yes, it looks great to look outside. But glass is such a very poor insulator (even double glazing). Far, far worse than an insulated wall. Too much glass & the home will get hot in summer - even if that glass is shaded - and cold in winter.

I feel that's the case with the southern facade too, a lot of glass! Did this part of the home get cold in winter? Although I'd recommend reducing the size of these southern windows, it looks like you're making very little change to the structure here, which is understandable.

What I would recommend however, is making sure that the new floorplan makes it possible to isolate this southern part of the home from the northern area (living area I presume). This means you'll be able to keep that northern living area warm in winter far easier. So I'd definitely recommend a door separating northern rooms from the entrance hallway & the southern rooms.

One last thing, or two actually.

That looks like a very good roof for solar. Of highly recommend you invest in sister PV at the earliest time possible, of you haven't thought of this. It's a great money saver/warmer. looks like you'd have an E/W split layout. Which is very popular, with solar generation for a very long period over the day. A very large western section, great for generation in the afternoons, & summer evenings. Which coincides with kids coming home after school, & AC use in summer afternoons. The eastern roof coincides with morning use. Just be careful with the panel placement on the eastern roof, as eave above the clerestory windows could shade eastern panels if they're located to close to it. Same goes with anything that will cause shade. As even a small amount of shade can cause significant decreases in generation. This means careful placement of things like the TV aerial & sink pipes is important.

Solar leads me on to my final point. How will you heat/cool your home, heat your water, cool your dinner?

If you've been using gas in the past, is be removing it during the renovation. Ditching gas in favour of an all-electric home!

You'll not only save on operating costs by using electricity instead of gas. You'll also save by removing the daily service gas charge. Which is $1-$1.50 a day. That's all over $300 a year, more than $3,000 over 10 years.

Reverse cycle AC to heat the home, which is now far cheaper to operate than gas. Electric heat pump hot water, again, far cheaper than gas. Fans to cool the home, with AC as backup on the very hot days. Induction cooking - which is becoming very popular - as responsive/sensitive as gas, & far easier to clean.

Power it all with a large solar PV system. Don't forget you'll probably be driving an EV in a few years, which uses a fair chunk of electricity. So size the solar system accordingly. A minimum of 6.6kW for single phase power. Larger for 3 phase power.

Not only will you save yourself plenty of cash, this is also great for the environment. Scomo may say that gas is our transition fuel, but this is a terrible idea. It's horrible for the environment.

If you're interested in the all-electric approach, & are in Facebook, I'd recommend you join the My Efficient Electric Home (MEEH) group.

Colours..... talk about getting side tracked 😂

Too in-depth & off-topic?

I'll finish by just reinforcing the point that minor changes, to window placements & sizes, can have a significant effect on how your home will perform in both summer & winter.

Best of luck with the build 😁

PS. apologies for any typos, too long to proof read!

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Comments (14)

Black Bamboo
3 years ago
last modified: 3 years ago
The existing brick is nice. There are cladding options that look like wood but made from composite and are sheet installation saving costs. Have a look at scion and weathertex ranges. Lots of textured profiles and wood look cladding. Would go very nicely with this style of house.

Given your existing brick I'm really not sure why you would choose grey and black for cladding colours. I would have kept it in tone with that lovely brick and a nice light warm neutrals. I would be wary about putting a black cladding on north and west facing sides, ouch with the heat!

The black, white and grey thing will be over in another year or two. Work with the house you have and it will always look better than a dated trend. You are going to live with this new cladding for the next 20yrs remember.
traceymeadows thanked Black Bamboo
Anne Monsour
3 years ago
I agree with Black Bamboo re the heat especially .
traceymeadows thanked Anne Monsour
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traceymeadows
Original Author
3 years ago
thanks black bamboo. agree about the heat on black but the east side is very close to the boundary and will be blocked mainly by the house next door. its only the bit that shows on the plan as clad that will be colorbond matt steel. the existing brick we were thinking to be the bagged - or timber. while the brick is appealing to some we do not like the brick and are wnating to go for a more modernist/industrial look. all the clad at the back of the house will be colorbond steel matt (monument). its mainly all glass anyhow. the eave is 900.

with the axon cladding, we had thought to do the left had side of the house being the garage and the porch and front door, the right hand side we were to bag or timber clad.....

the western wall does pose an issue as it does get the sun......would the timber clad also get hounded by the sun do you think?

if we were to go timber clad on the front of the house (right side of front door) should we clad above the porch and timber front door to match? or keep the whole strip of axon in the one block......

its hard to explain and i have tried to do it on paper as i couldnt get any of these pictures to load into any decent software to apply the colours to see how it would look....
User
3 years ago
last modified: 3 years ago
I'd even wind way further back .

Why are you going with a skillion roof ( well , I guess technically double skillion ? ) , what will it do to the ceilings , and even why not do a skillion with windows sloping presumably to the rear ?

I like tthe long and low look at present , BUT if you decided to do a roof sloping towards the rear , the ceilings and extensions to every wall would be easier , you could have either a solid roof extension or pergola style at the rear , and a full length terrace or even a 2 level one as per your designs , with the upper one covered and the lower open ?

As far as colours , I'd echo the other two comments . In fact , look at the picture you posted , and you notice the garage door and the railings -- the white tones . What do you have to look for ? Where do I go to knock on the front door ? Oh , its that black thing hidden away .

So why go monument ? Cause its trendy . So was turqoise , so was mission brown , so was terracotta , so was beige . Now you get arrested if you paint anything in those tones .

Add some colour ( imagine your place exactly as it is , with mid orange gutters and barge boards , and the front door done the same , for example ) , maybe change the windows ( that might be were you want to go for monument colour aluminium joinery , or maybe cedar ?) , update the railings , tile the terrace , add terrace to the rear , add a wooden garage door , do the fences in charcoal .

Maybe you have good reason to change the roof profile , maybe you have good reason to have to change every internal wall , maybe you have good reason to paint and paper every room . I'd be interested to hear .
User
3 years ago
Oh , and one thing I cannot understand , and cannot stand -- the 2 steps are shorter than the opening . Maybe I'm OCD , but why oh why ?
traceymeadows thanked User
traceymeadows
Original Author
3 years ago
the roof needs to be replaced as it has a slope of less than 1 degree and leaks. we ventured down the road of replacing with a flat roof but the cost was going to be too high and eventually a flat rook will leak at some point. neither of us like the traditionally pitched roof so we opted for a skillion (or double) as you put it. the bedrooms are on the eastern side so the higher roof is on the western side of the house which will be the new kitchen/dining alfresco casual living etc.

we are basically replacing the back half of the house. the ceilings will be raked and reach 4.2m sloping down to 2.9 over the alfresco (western side).

i dont yet have the final floor plans to show so i didnt want to upload that to not cause confusion. but basically the kitchen window will face north (nice view of the pool while doing dishes), to the left will be approx 7m of stacker doors out to the deck and pool, then there will be a 4m stacker opening on to the alfresco where we will have a covered outdoor dining area.

we will be adding a pergola over the the north deck directly out from the casual lounge when budget permits later on. but as we found out we had to replace the entire roof, instrad of just a portion, we have had to reattribute where the costs go....

in interests of cost, perhaps we should just leave the current brick and paint the existing cladding the colour we want and later on we can reclad the front of house....

we will not be replacing any of the windows at the front.

the entire back half of the house will be new which is why we want it to be more industrial...
traceymeadows
Original Author
3 years ago
the front steps are being widened to match the width of the new 1200 door (plus side light). there are lots of bitsy pieces like that in this house which is why we are dropping the back half of it. it is made up of a number of additions......a bit peice meal.....
traceymeadows
Original Author
3 years ago
the carport you can see in front of the porch is also going - as will the trellis on the porch! we have already painted the brown fence to be monument and it looks great
User
3 years ago
That makes a bit more sense now thanks . No matter what you do , I can see a couple of problems . The existing bricks I think are quite nice , but if you are doing things in 'stages' , that leaves a problem -- what to do with the new angular bits .

Is the existing ceiling exposed beams ? Basically , will you end up with a flat ceiling , or a sloping one ? If you ( or the builder ) can , you may want to do the angular pieces in a fibre-cement or similar , either flush or set back a centimetre or so , possibly painted/rendered in a yellowy beige the same as your bricks , but then maybe have some 50mm x 50mm battens fixed vertically 50mm in front of this , and stained charcoal / monument ?

If the rear is going to be mainly darker tones ( just going by the concept drawings ) then maybe do the front windows in monument to match ? And possibly do the left side triangular piece in monument or similar , either seamed cladding as you suggested , or even square ribbed 'roofing profile' . That gets the darker colours and the slightly industrial look , keeps the existing brick and windows , and I even think the existing trellis and garage door would be okay for a year or two .

I still like the long low look , but obviously as it now sounds like you are altering internal and external walls , a skillion 'sort of' makes sense , but as the existing 1% roof has presumably done 50 years or so , I would have questionned further , but it sounds like the skillion is your preference .
traceymeadows thanked User
lyndagoulden
3 years ago
Hi, firstly congratulations on your decision to renovate. How exciting.

We are nearing the end of a major renovation and choosing the exterior colours was a real sticking point. Most of the houses around us were built in the 1990's and my renovation had the potential to not quite fit in. I had to use a timber cladding to match the existing cedar but the original had been poorly stained and I was never going to get a cohesive match between old and new. I was left pondering my choices. The solution was to paint both but what colour?

In the end, I looked at what of the existing was going to be left unchanged. It turned out to be the Karaka Green window frames - not my favourite colour - but in order to work with it I had to pray I didn't offend the neighbourhood. I didn't want the old dirty brown shade and a thousand testpots later, left me with only one really obvious answer.

As you can see from the photo, I chose [quite radically] to paint the entire extention in Half Karaka green. It's still a work in progress and in the coming weeks, the rest of the house will be painted to match.

I waited for the neighbours - particularly, the old people from the Rest Home at the end of the street - to tell me off for my choice but have been blown away by their reactions. Every last comment has been a major thumbs up. Even the painter - who was highly skeptical - apologised for his doubt,

Don't automatically assume your neighbours are going to hate seeing the changes you are about to bring to the area.

Which brings me to your planned renovations. I am assuming that your window frames are also going to remain the white colour in the photo.

Rather than get all confused about greys etc.

Start with them as the basis for the rest of the house and work out from there. If you do that, then I don't think it will be as difficult as it currently seems for you to pick what the rest of the house will be. Don't be afraid to spend money on purchasing test pots. They are around $4 or $5 each and I believe that I probably spent $200. It was worth every penny to me to get a few small off cuts of cedar painted and sit and look at them alongside the existing windows in order to make an informed decision.

Good luck. I look forward to seeing some finished photos.

I hope to post my finished renovation photos here soon.
traceymeadows thanked lyndagoulden
traceymeadows
Original Author
3 years ago
i really like that colour...and what colour is the roof? we arent replacing any of the windows on the front of the house at this stage. i think we will just paint them to match where we will clad the roof height extension. that way at least it will all tie in. i had thought maybe we could leave the existing brick on the front of the house for now.....in the interests of cost..... we both like the dark look and want to love away from brown/cream....
lyndagoulden
3 years ago
Tracey, the original half of the house roof was Karaka Green, the same as the windows and again, we opted to do the new extension in Karaka Green It's not a perfect match but fortunately you can't see both together from the ground. It was done with the intention to paint both sides to match properly in a year when money allows.

Bare in mind that we live in New Zealand and can stand having darker colours than you living in Australia.
traceymeadows thanked lyndagoulden
traceymeadows
Original Author
3 years ago
yes, i know...!i am from NZ which is where my yearning for the dark colours comes from! dark stained cedar is iconic nz beach house! we are doing the back extension in colorbond matt and will have silver window stackers and kitchen bifolds.....we are having a heap of solar panels put on the roof also. we are trying to opt for a light roof to compensate for our want to have a darker colour clad...but if we leave the current brick that will be somewhat less dark all over... the problem is that because we are lifting the roofline up we need to either clad or timber slat or something similar up to the roof......trying to tie it all in is hard....

Which exterior cladding and colours should I choose?

ddarroch

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