How To Choose Between Cladding Spraying vs Cladding Replacement

Your cladding is the face of your building, and its appearance can make or break the first impression of customers, stakeholders, and potential tenants. This applies to landlords, business owners, and property owners alike, and badly maintained cladding can also reduce the value of your premises.

That’s why you need to take care of your building exterior, especially if coatings are showing signs of ageing or wear. The question is, how do you choose between cladding spraying and cladding replacement when the time comes?

In this article, we’ll explore how they stack up against each other in terms of cost efficiency, sustainability, and time. We’ll also look at the importance of choosing the right commercial finisher for the job, and the danger of doing nothing.

What Cladding Spraying Involves

Cladding spraying is the coating of existing external panels with a high-performance paint system. It’s a professional service, not a quick touch-up or refresh, and it can restore colour and protect panels well into the future.

The process should also include cleaning and preparation of the surface with jet washing or abrasive cleaning to remove dirt and guarantee adhesion. Dents, scratches, and small cracks should also be repaired before cladding spraying takes place for a consistent finish.

This is much different from cladding replacement, which involves replacing the panels entirely. This requires a lot more planning and is generally more complicated. Then, there’s the cost and time it takes.

Costs and Time Considerations

The biggest distinction between cladding spraying and replacement is the cost. On average, cladding spraying in the UK can be up to 80% cheaper than replacement, which could be tens of thousands of pounds.

The reasons for this vary from the difficulty of sourcing materials to the fact that the job simply takes a lot longer. Extra considerations like scaffolding and waste management also need to be factored in and paid for. All of this adds up, and disruptions are fairly common, too.

Cladding spraying, however, is often carried out while the building is in use and can be completed quickly compared to full replacements.

Durability and Performance

On average, a professionally applied spray finish will offer up to and beyond 15 years of protection. Of course, this will depend on things like the weather conditions the building is exposed to and the paint systems used. However, properly sprayed walls should be resistant to common British weather conditions such as wind and rain, and they should reduce the chances of fading, cracking, peeling, or other damage.

Replacement cladding panels, on the other hand, may have longer lifespans, but they don’t always provide significantly greater protection in the short to medium term. In fact, many clients who choose cladding spraying from ACS Coatings report satisfaction comparable to that of new cladding but at a fraction of the cost.

Why Professional Commercial Refinishers Matter

Firstly, not every cladding company can achieve the right kind of finish you need.

There are lots of ways the process can go wrong, too, from a lack of preparation to the incorrect methods used, inferior paint products, and more. All of these can lead to peeling and damage after a few years or even after a bad storm.

That’s why it’s so important to use a trusted expert with years of experience, warranties on all work, and a strong track record in the industry.