Latest Posts
July 19, 2023 9:36 am
Published by Summit Cladding
Replacing Hanging Tiles Here at Summit we are proud to continue a fine tradition of cladding people’s homes that began many centuries ago, but the difference is that we are using the most up to date and efficient materials. As the pictures show, this client’s house in Abbots Langley, Hertfordshire used to have a tile-hung upper storey. That is when clay roof tiles are hung on vertical walls as a cladding option. It’s a tradition that began mainly in the south-east corner of England back in the 1600s as a superior form of weatherproofing, when many houses were built of timber, daub and wattle. Nowadays, on modern homes, it’s more of a decorative feature. When it is done properly it... View Article
July 9, 2023 7:33 pm
Published by Summit Cladding
Maintenance-free and Weather-proof It’s important to bear in mind that fitting cladding to the walls of your house is about more than just making it look better. It’s also about protecting those walls and making them weatherproof. Our client, Alice, from Brentwood in Essex, is an interior designer and decorator with an obvious eye for detail. When she moved into her mid-terrace cottage her surveyor highlighted areas that would need attention, including the brickwork. The cement was deteriorating in several places and would need re-pointing, so Alice had a choice: re-point the whole back wall and keep the brick façade or cover it with maintenance-free James Hardie cladding. As with many of our clients, Alice had seen another house nearby... View Article
June 14, 2023 2:55 pm
Published by Summit Cladding
Maintenance-free uPVC fascias and bargeboards If you live in a house that boasts attractive architectural features wouldn’t you hesitate before getting any remedial work done? After all, you might think, how can I be sure that replacement parts will match the originals? This can be a dilemma unless you know where to look and who to engage to do the work. Here at Summit Cladding, we are well used to reassuring our clients that we can and will reproduce the “look” that they want, with all the benefits of up-to-date maintenance-free uPVC materials. Fed up with painting timber? Our latest client, Clare, has lived in this handsome Edwardian property in a London suburb for about 30 years, but the constant... View Article
May 27, 2023 12:30 pm
Published by Summit Cladding
Stunning roofline transformation When Summit Cladding gives your property a makeover there are several key stages, all of them important, to guarantee a successful transformation. There is the main cladding itself of course, but we never overlook the need to replace soffits and fascias. The smaller stuff is equally crucial if we want to be sure of a really nice finish. Our client, Mr Gulabadas, has lived in his home in North London for some 40 years and is very happy there. It’s an elegant Edwardian house, solidly built and with generous sized rooms. But as with many of our clients, the constant maintenance of the property’s timber features was taking its toll. Soffits and fascias hard to reach This... View Article
May 4, 2023 5:53 pm
Published by Summit Cladding
Our latest client, Donna, knew something had to be done when she found squatters living upstairs. A family of pigeons had taken up residence in the roof space over the front door, leaving their messy “calling cards” all over the porch roof tiles. The house, in Waltham Cross on the North London and Hertfordshire borders, was only 15 years old, but the timber fascias had already started to rot, allowing unwanted access for Donna’s feathered visitors. As Donna was wondering what to do about it, she came across Summit Cladding’s showroom while visiting Springtime Nurseries garden centre at Crews Hill, Enfield. It’s how many of our clients find us, and when Donna saw the range of maintenance-free products that we... View Article
April 14, 2023 9:01 pm
Published by Summit Cladding
Hardieplank weatherproof cladding If Darwin’s Theory of Evolution applied to the materials used for building cladding there’d be a clear line to follow. First came timber, followed by uPVC, and now we have the fully evolved Hardieplank composite cladding, a real game-changer in the world of construction. Take this cosy home in Chigwell, Essex for example. The owner, Lee, has lived there for 20 years. When he moved in, the house still had its original timber cladding which was showing its age. Timber is lovely and natural, but it doesn’t last indefinitely and needs constant painting or staining to preserve its looks. Evolution in action So, one of Lee’s first projects was to replace the wood cladding with white uPVC,... View Article
March 9, 2023 5:55 pm
Published by Summit Cladding
Summit Cladding ventured out to South Ockendon in Essex for this latest task, where our client, Steve, was looking forward to seeing how we could give his home the makeover it deserved. Steve was one of the many householders who bought their former council homes under the Right to Buy legislation brought in by the government of Margaret Thatcher back in the 1980s. It’s a good, solid semi-detached brick-built house which had pebbledash render around the first floor and boasts a large sunroom extension at the back – although it wasn’t very sunny when we saw the house around Christmas! When Steve and his wife bought their house off the council they knew it would be many years until they... View Article
February 15, 2023 12:42 pm
Published by Summit Cladding
Have you ever had one of those “Eureka” moments when you discover something quite unexpectedly while looking for something else? It’s funny how a solution to a problem can appear when you least expect it. This was what happened for the owners of this charming house, The White Cottage in leafy Harlow, Essex They had gone to the garden centre at Crews Hill in Enfield to buy some plants to brighten their property. But Crews Hill is also the site of Summit Cladding’s showroom, where we display the full range of our products, so you can guess what happened next. The perfect solution As the couple wandered into our showroom, they experienced that lightbulb moment. They realised that James Hardie... View Article
February 8, 2023 6:42 pm
Published by Summit Cladding
If you look closely at the fine detail of James Hardie composite cladding, you can see why it has become so popular among fans of home improvement. With a perfect imitation wood grain you can almost believe that you are looking at genuine stained timber — especially when it’s in black, like this latest job for Summit Cladding. We were contacted by a householder from Wanstead, East London, who had been let down by a number of companies which had failed to honour promises to sort out some snagging issues on his property. Summit to the rescue Our client who, ironically, works as a construction project manager himself, had extended and modernised the property last year, but the finish to... View Article
January 18, 2023 7:19 am
Published by Summit Cladding
Summit Cladding is about more than just maintenance-free composite boards – brilliant though they are. Sometimes only natural timber will do. This was the case with our latest job, to replace the cladding on our client’s Georgian house situated within a conservation area in leafy Loughton, Essex. Summit Cladding had already installed new cedar shingles on his outbuilding, and he was so pleased with the result that he asked us to replace the softwood cladding at the back of the main house with bespoke hardwood cladding. As we have written many times on here, softwood cladding just doesn’t stand the test of time. It looks lovely when first installed, but nature and the weather will eventually take its toll, leaving... View Article
