James Hardie Building Products has provided its HardiePlank® cladding for Trenders Barn, a development consisting of four timber frame luxury detached properties.

When Barry Daly, company director of BUDA Building and Development, went to visit an old reclaim yard in Rawreth to purchase some oak for a development he was working on, all he found was a barren site. Barry proceeded to buy the site, for which an application for a barn type development had already been made and granted.

Along with the need for a high quality finish for such a premium build, environmental performance was also a key deciding factor for the choice of all materials. HardiePlank® cladding, with cedar texture in midnight black was specified for the facades to stay in-keeping with local Essex design styles.

Having worked with the product before, Barry was confident that it was the perfect material to use. ‘In terms of benefits’ he explains, “you can install it in wet weather, and it has a good fire rating which is really important to our customers. It also saves time”; if you are using timber you need to paint it both sides, and often with two coats, whereas HardiePlank cladding comes pre-finished. We considered PVC too but it just didn’t look anything like as good as fibre cement".

Barry was also happy with the efficiency of HardiePlank®, commenting "In terms of installation time, the cladding only took about 8 working days per house to put up, which is pretty efficient. It only needs a simple nail on fix too". "We regularly recommend HardiePlank cladding to others. HardiePlank looks the real McCoy. This, along with its low maintenance, is why we use it.”