Hi folks,
TLDR: What are the drawbacks of constructing external walls with Cladding/Lightweight instead of bricks? Would extra wall-batts help with insulation/energy efficiency/durability?
I am considering building my first house as the established market in Brisbane is gone crazy.
Pictures of lot & design:
https://ibb.co/xhKm8p0
https://ibb.co/m9H7zKS
Update: all sorted
Almost all cladding looks terrible after 5-10 years whereas bricks can last 50 years more or less looking the same. Surely there's another way to save 100mm?
Also why is the master immediately next to the kitchen?! That's not common.
master immediately next to the kitchen
Agree, looks more like a after though when adding an extension. Should use bed 4/laundry or bed 3/2 as master location.
Yep, agree. It's going to look like the original house ended after bed 3/laundry with the rooms to the left on the diagram tacked on.
Rather than taking 5cm off each side, can't you take 10cm off the other side and then the bathroom and kitchen in question stay the same size?
very true. cladding requires maintenance, and cracks, delaminates, and/or colour fades. Brick looks relatively the same over 50 years
That is very depressing. Cladding seems like a bad choice.
It is a strange layout. Would rather have a double storey house on such a small plot of land.
10m frontages on new lots on expectedly flat land in the middle of nowhere - how far we've come.
With small lots like this I think it's time to go back to terrace type houses, can be done with garages too. Areas like Newington in Sydney have done this and IMO it looks pretty good - a bit Truman show-ish.
I think it's time to go back to terrace type houses.
They do this in Canada a lot. Every house in the below example has its own title (no strata), own garage (at the rear) and with a basement and two stories they are very spacious. Its so much more space efficient than the useless gaps we have between houses that contain a hot water service and weeds. I imagine its a lot more cost efficient as they are all built simultaneously and theres common walls (although they need be be fire walls). I would love something like this in Melb.
https://www.google.com/maps/@49.0361253,-122.2971266,3a,75y,…
Is aerated concrete an alternative cladding? May be worth a look.
https://www.csr.com.au/brands/hebel
Hebel block is still 150mm to 250mm thick for external walls, depending on the application. A typical brick is 110mm thick.
This doesn't help OP's situation in terms of reducing wall thickness., but Hebel is significantly cheaper to lay compared to brick, however Hebel requires render over it whereas brick doesn't.
Some advice, taken with a grain of salt
What are the drawbacks of constructing external walls with Cladding/Lightweight instead of bricks? Would extra wall-batts help with insulation/energy efficiency/durability?
Cemental is a 8.5mm thick sheet, that is typically direct fixed to a layer of 13mm firechek plaster to the stud wall. Then render over. Render is known to crack
It is done to save money.
The wall cavity may already have been beefed up with insulation, to match the thermal performance of a brickwall.
Brick has far better acoustic properties than a 8.5mm sheet of Cemintel.
The appearance of render vs brick is different. It depends what look you are after.
Cannot use brickwork on the external walls on the right hand side of the house due to setback requirements being a corner block.
- this is BS. The builder is trying to save money.
Has to be replaced with Cemintel SimpleLine lightweight cladding. The left hand side is always those lightweight materials. If I want brick on the right hand side, I was suggested to take 5cm off each of those 2 red lines in the picture (total 10cm)
Although they do have to work within measurement parameters as set by the Council, unless the endorsed drawings specifically state you must use "Cemintel", the builder is trying to save money for themselves and leave you short changed.
- consequences - 1) No Bathtub in common bathroom 2) 600mm cooktop instead of 900mm cooktop.
Load of BS from the builder. They are playing games. If you use brick walls, you've added 110mm + 40mm cavity = 150mm wall thickness, minus 8.5mm Cemintel + 13mm layer of firechek board + 5mm render = 27mm, so 150 - 27 = 123mm, both ends from my calcs. (They are suggesting 50mm both ends, unsure how they got that)
They can decrease and increase the internal dimensions to make the bathtub fit, as well as the 900mm cooktop. You may lose 123mm on one end of the benchtop, but still can fit a 900mm wide cooktop. 123mm is a size of a phone, no big deal.
They're playing games with you so that you get put off to make you stick with Cemintel so they save money for themselves.
I wasn't told about this when signing the quote and they discovered during design phase.
- what does the contract, or drawings, or render images state in terms of external wall materials, at the time you signed?
- argue with them that you weren't told of any Cemintal products being on your house
Thank you for the insight. Really helped me make a decision :)
Those seem like pretty big caveats to me, i would back out. Compromises like these are what you really regret when you finish, especially when the market cools down.