Green materials that weather well

While timber cladding is certainly a building material with low embodied energy, it's not necessarily the most all-round sustainable material to build with.

For example, one of the most frequent maintenance requirements is re-painting. Over a nominal life of 50 years, James Hardie building products like those made from Scyon™ , a lightweight cement composite, will need some repainting - like most other cladding products.

However, if its painted surface is prevented from deterioration, Scyon products will only need re-painting only every 10, or even 15 years with selected paints. For timber-based products this requirement is more frequent – about every eight years. 

That’s because timber is more susceptible to cracking or warping in exterior applications. Products like Linea weatherboard and Matrix, Stria or Axon cladding, are resistant to shrinkage, swelling and cracking, which means the paint doesn’t deteriorate as fast as on a timber substrate and therefore holds paint longer than timber.

For this reason, Taubmans has extended its paint warranty to 15 years when applied to Linea weatherboard, whereas the same paint has only seven years on timber alternatives.

All of these factors contribute to a lower embodied energy over a 50-year life and the following diagram is a generic way to demonstrate this process.