The composite cladding has evolved and what we currently have on the market is not the same as what we had a few years ago. However, some people think that cladding is only for beauty but cladding has more roles. We spoke to several experts in the construction industry and here is what the experts have to say about cladding.

Purpose of cladding

Aside from improving the aesthetic appeal of cladding, cladding plays other purposes including protecting the building from elements, creating a controlled environment in the house, acting as a soundproof material, providing thermal insulation, and other things.

Cladding maintains the security and privacy of exteriors, provides a hygienic environment, provides access to ventilation and prevents the spread of fire. Its properties such as waterproofing properties, termite resistance, environmental friendliness and their wide range of designs and colors make cladding a trend.

The main faction of cladding is to provide a private area that will provide protection from weather conditions such as wind, rains and cyclones. Exterior cladding plays an important role in the building’s structural aspects. Being lightweight, they add minimal weight to a building and add a host of advantages such as sun screening, ventilation dissipating heat absorbed through the second skin of aluminum.

Cladding not only protects the building but also enhances the architectural concept of a building and the overall building’s appearance. Bardage composite cladding is an impermeable and porous material that absorbs water during rainfall and keeps out rain infiltration and keeps the building safe and secure.

Structural role of cladding

While cladding is essentially a nonstructural secondary surface that people attach to the primary structural surface of a building, has a nice fitting effect structurally on the building. Though it is merged with the structural face of a building, it doesn’t contribute to the stability on the whole. It does play a structural role in transferring wind but it is important to remember that cladding adds more weight to a building and this means that it should be strong enough to support its own weight.

Cladding materials are engineered to withstand loads of winds on the geometry and topography of a building, the live loads imposed, the dead loads of the curtainwall, thermal and seismic loads, while also accounting for loads that are imposed on cladding due to the movements of a building such as a creep movement and shortening. The cladding is typically designed to limit deflection of the framework of the cladding and infill panels within the serviceability limits as desired.

Engineering checks and design are carried out to ensure that the stresses in the façade elements are limited to yield enough stress to ensure that there is not permanent material deformation. The framing member of the cladding is further designed, checked and engineered to ensure that there is no bucking from the compression loads from the axial direction, as well as the compression loads imposed due to lateral-torsional bending.

In short, wind causes negative and positive pressure on the building’s surface and composite cladding should have ample stiffness and strength to resist the load in terms of the cladding type chosen and the connection of the cladding to the structure.