White plastic cladding....help!

[DrinkingInTheNightGarden]

We bought a 60s house which is an on going labour of love. One thing I can't stand is the white plastic cladding on the front and back of the house. I'm mindful this matches the houses in our small road though so I don't want to go too rogue so thinking I need to stick with white. I was thinking white weatherboards that overlap to modernise it a bit. Or white render on those parts. The rest of the house is brick. Anyone done this?

We had this cladding on the apex of our house, we changed it to much more modern cladding in cream, it looks tons better

Thanks @Tara336 what kind of cladding did you use instead?

weather board means upkeep

@DrinkingInTheNightGarden. I think it’s called fortex (should know the name as DH owns a window company so our guys fitted it) our neighbor has kept the white upvc if I can work out how to do it I can pop a photo up tomorrow for you as it shows the contrast. It’s not a big job to change and not too expensive either

House down the road from us (also 60's and 70's houses) has done theres in a pale green. it looks lovely. For some reason it seems more beach house looking, we do overlook the sea.

www.self-build.co.uk/choosing-external-cladding/
Here are some ideas ^^.
Perhaps fibre cement boards or engineered wood might modernise the look. Depends on your budget.
Maybe worth cheking if there are any planning conditions or covenants on the houses.

@Tara336 that would be amazing thank you! I’ll have a google at fortex (or similar) in the meantime

Thanks everyone else too for your suggestions so far. We’re semi detached so I think we need to keep white to match next door but I’m not too worried if semi detached don’t match but I’m sure my neighbours would mind!

Ask them if they want theirs done at the same time. We've got fibreboard on our dormer (dark grey to blend with the slates). Looks nice.

@DrinkingInTheNightGarden

Hopefully photos have posted

Yes photos have posted! That’s exactly what I’m thinking but I’d have white to not rage the neighbours. Thank you @Tara336 I’ll look up a supplier of fortex locally (unless you’re in Kent??)

Ps looks lovely!!

@DrinkingInTheNightGarden thank you, they do it in white as well and a much lighter cream. Sorry we aren’t in Kent but sure you will be able to find someone decent to do it, use Checkatrade to find someone as they are strict on vetting

If you're re-cladding, this might be a good time to upgrade the wall insulation. Depending on house age, many clad houses are built with a low-cost block, and the cladding provides weather resistance. Often there is no cavity wall. Renovation would involve pulling off the old, appying insulation slabs to the wall, and re-cladding or applying a render finish over cement boards. I have seen this widely done in Switzerland and other continental countries.

I prefer the look of a render to the look of cladding, especially plastic which I don't like, and wood which worries me as it is flammable.

There's a new-ish render called K-Rend (a trade name, there are others similar) that plasterers say is very good. It has the appearance of a painted render but the colour is in the material itself. It's thin coat, breathing, weatherproof, the tech is common in Europe.

It was used near me on a hotel for the bays and (so far) seems to be looking smart and has not needed any maintenance.

You'd need to find an established local company and look at their other jobs to assess quality of work. Websites are not a reliable source of recommendations.

Thanks @PigletJohn I've seen you on the property boards, you are very knowledgable!

I looked up K rend and it looks great. The previous owner had cavity wall insulation put in a few years back, we have paperwork for it so will look it up to double check.

I would avoid wood, it was the cladding that looked like wood but would be plastic, basically like @Tara336 posted.

I do think the render would look the best, our old neighbours did it in our last road and it looked brilliant.