What are the different types of cladding?

Do you want to use exterior cladding for your facade? Then you’ll find that there are many options out there. In this article, you’ll find more information about the most common types of cladding on the market. Let us break it down for you: 

One of the most frequently used types of cladding is stone. A facade made of stone is sturdy andlong-lasting and can give your building a luxurious appearance. A disadvantage of cladding a building with natural stone or ceramic cladding is that this facade material is usually quite heavy. Stone look cladding can be a very good alternative, as it’s light-weight and can even be bent. 

Metal cladding, including materials like stainless steel, aluminium, zinc and copper, can give your facade a lustrous and very elegant appearance. Metal look exterior cladding will also provide your building with this luxurious timeless look, while it also offers even more design freedom. How about a gold-look facade or a distinctive worn look? 

Another type of metal cladding are composite panels, also known as sandwich panels. Aluminium Composite Panels (ACPs), for example, consist of two thin coil-coated aluminium sheets, bonded to core of other material. In many cases, plastics are used here, giving these panels a poor reaction to fire. 

Timber is also a very popular building material that is often applied to facades. It gives any building a very warm and authentic look. Whereas using real timber can cause issues regarding fire safety and requires a lot of maintenance, there are also authentic looking, firesafe, low-maintenance and sustainable timber effect facade boards on the market. 

Vinyl cladding came up as a more durable option to other types of cladding. You’ll find that this facade material is flexible, versatile and low-maintenance. However, vinyl cladding isn’t the most sustainable option and the often very synthetic look might also not give your building the high-quality look you’re looking for.  

If you’re looking for a facade cladding material that combines the durability and fire resilience of stone with the workability of wood, then stone wool cladding is exactly what you need. Stone wool, made from basalt, is the core material for Rockpanel cladding. Basalt is a natural volcanic stone which is non-depletable, making stone wool cladding a very responsible and sustainable choice.  

Want to know more about how stone wool cladding is made? Have a look at this article including a video.  

HPL (High Pressure Laminate) facade boards consist of various layers that are compressed (laminated) under very high pressure, making it pretty strong and durable. Among the layers used in HPL boards are ones with overlay paper, decorative paper and Kraft paper. HPL panels usually consist of about 60-70% paper and about 30-40% thermosetting resins. All these materials are combustible by nature and therefore have a poor reaction to fire performance. HPL is also not recyclable. 

Fibre cement is a composite material, made of cement reinforced with cellulose fibres. Fibre cement boards are firesafe, have a long lifespan and don’t require a lot of maintenance. Disadvantages of fibre cement boards is that they are not recyclable and that the boards are relatively heavy compared to for example stone wool cladding.