If your exterior cladding in Waterbeach has failed or been damaged, knowing what to do in the days before a contractor arrives can make a real difference to the outcome.
Exterior cladding is a fixed boarding system applied over the outside of your walls to protect them from rain, frost and wind. At Newmarket Roofers, we install timber, composite and fibre cement cladding on homes across Waterbeach, Newmarket and the surrounding area. A properly installed cladding system protects the wall structure behind it and helps reduce heat loss through external walls.
When cladding is damaged - by wind, impact, water ingress or simple age - the wall beneath becomes vulnerable quickly. Rain does not need a large gap to do significant damage to brickwork, render or insulation. Understanding what you can safely do yourself while you wait for a professional, and equally what you should leave alone, keeps the situation from getting worse.
Before anything else, look at the damage from ground level. You are trying to understand the extent and location, not to fix it. Note which boards are affected, whether any are completely detached or are just loose, and whether there is any visible gap where water could be entering the wall.
Do not climb a ladder to inspect cladding on an upper storey. Loose boards can move unpredictably, scaffolding tubes left by previous trades can be slippery, and working at height without the right equipment is how people are seriously hurt. A pair of binoculars gives you a clear view from the ground and is the right tool at this stage.
There are a small number of things that are safe and genuinely useful to do before the contractor arrives. These are temporary protective measures, not repairs.
If a board has come completely away from a ground-floor section and there is an open gap in the cladding, a piece of exterior-grade plywood or heavy-duty polythene sheeting tacked or weighted in place can prevent rain from driving straight into the wall cavity. This is a short-term measure only - it keeps the immediate situation stable without pretending to be a repair.
Broken boards, fragments and organic material that has accumulated at the base of the cladding should be cleared away. This makes the contractor's access easier and prevents broken timber from holding moisture against the wall below the cladding line.
Take photographs before anything is moved or covered. These are useful to the contractor assessing the job, useful if you need to make a claim on a home insurance policy, and useful as a record of the condition before work begins. Include wide shots that show the full elevation and close-up shots of specific damage points.
If the damage followed a storm, note the date. If a board has been getting progressively worse over a number of months, that history helps the contractor understand whether this is surface damage or whether water has been tracking in for some time. Write it down - it is easy to forget the detail by the time the visit happens.
This is the more important list. Several things that seem helpful in the moment can make the professional repair more difficult or more expensive.
Refixing a loose board correctly involves removing it, inspecting the membrane and batten behind it, and refixing with the right fasteners at the right centres. Screwing a board back from a ladder without doing this obscures the damage beneath and may not hold in the next period of wind - at which point the board becomes a hazard. Leave boards that are partially attached but not on the ground exactly as they are until the contractor can access them safely from scaffolding.
It is tempting to squirt sealant into a joint or gap to keep water out. The problem is that sealant applied over damaged or moving boards does not adhere properly, traps moisture that has already entered, and makes it harder for the contractor to see the true extent of the damage. Temporary polythene over the section is a better approach.
Pressure washing a section of cladding that has gaps or loose boards forces water directly into the wall cavity and potentially into the wall structure. Even light hosing near the damaged section should be avoided until repairs are complete.
A board that is loose but still attached is still providing some weather protection. Pulling it away entirely removes that protection and may damage the membrane behind it. The contractor can remove it properly as part of the repair sequence.
Wind damage to cladding can appear minor on the outside but involve more extensive movement of boards and fixings across a wider area than is immediately visible. After any event that has caused noticeable damage to one section, it is worth having the whole elevation checked - not just the obviously affected boards. Fixings that have been stressed but not quite let go may do so in the next wind event.
If you are making an insurance claim, let your insurer know before any permanent repair work begins. Most policies require this, and carrying out repairs before notification can affect a claim. Temporary protective measures as described above are generally acceptable - permanent repairs should wait until the claim is acknowledged.
Understanding what the contractor will do helps you ask the right questions when they arrive. A proper repair to storm or age-damaged cladding involves removing the affected boards and one or two neighbouring boards to inspect the membrane and battens behind them. If the membrane has been breached, it needs patching or replacing before new boards go on. Battens that have been soaked or are beginning to deteriorate need replacing too - refixing to soft timber does not hold.
New boards are then fixed to the correct specification for that product, with the right fixing centres and edge clearances. Junctions are sealed with appropriate external-grade sealant and finished to match the surrounding boards as closely as possible. The sign of a proper repair is that the affected area looks continuous with the rest and that the cavity behind is fully protected.
A localised repair to a small section of cladding - replacing three to six boards and resealing junctions - typically costs in the range of £200 to £600 depending on the material involved, the access required and the condition of what is found behind the boards. Fibre cement and composite repairs tend to cost slightly more in materials than timber, but the labour time is similar. Scaffolding for upper-storey access adds to the overall cost and varies with the height and configuration of the property.
If a large proportion of the cladding is affected, a full replacement is usually more cost-effective than extending a series of patch repairs. A contractor assessing the situation should be able to advise you honestly on which route makes sense for your property.
We carry out exterior cladding repairs and replacements in Waterbeach, Newmarket, Cambridge, Ely and the surrounding area including nearby places like Soham and Bury St Edmunds. If you have damage that needs looking at, call us to arrange a site visit and a written quote before any work begins.
No obligation · We usually respond within 2 hours
Storm damage, active leak, damaged ridge - we aim to be on-site within 24 hours.
