How do plants cause issues for external wall cladding?

Many factors can cause problems for your property’s external wall cladding, including damage and debris from plant foliage.

One of the main issues facing the cladding on your property is the weather. The colder months can cause problems such as cut edge corrosion, where water enters the tiniest cracks on the cladding due to repeated freezing and thawing and cause the cut edge of the cladding to deteriorate. UV radiation causes a faded, dull façade. The higher summer temperatures can cause metal cladding to expand and contract, leading to cracking and peeling of the cladding paintwork.

Another less well-known problem caused by nature is the damage plants can do to your building.

External wall cladding damage

Many plants can damage your property, including crawling plants such as ivy. Ivy can be difficult to control and can easily damage the finish of painted industrial cladding if it isn’t kept in check. Even when removed, ivy can often leave behind ‘suckers’, which are difficult to remove and can even require a blowtorch or scraping tool to remove them from your building entirely.

Moss is also another plant that can potentially damage your external wall cladding. Moss thrives in cool, damp, shaded areas and can sometimes be found on external wall cladding. As well as looking unsightly and dirty, moss can not only mask areas of corrosion on your external wall cladding, but it could also be accelerating it. Effective cladding cleaning is required to prepare your external wall cladding for recoating and treating with appropriate systems.

Here at Cladding Coatings, we offer regular maintenance packages to examine any areas of concern to help prevent damage from causing problems for your building.

Gutter damage

Another common and often overlooked issue that can cause severe damage to your property is plant debris and leaves. Debris and leaves can block your gutter systems, stopping water from draining away from your property. Standing water in gutter systems can lead to cracking and holes appearing, which means water isn’t draining away from your property as it should. Instead, it is leaking onto your metal roof and external wall cladding.

If gutter systems are neglected and regular maintenance isn’t completed, it can result in further problems for your cladding.

Prevention is key, and with our extensive gutter cleaning and refurbishment options, the quality of your gutter systems and peace of mind can be guaranteed. Luckily, here at Cladding Coatings, we tackle problems at the root, effectively preventing further damage and expense for you. See how we provide gutter cleaning and maintenance services to protect your building from rainwater damage.

Unusual problems we’ve encountered

No two projects are ever the same, and when completing any external refurbishment project, there are sometimes unusual problems or factors to take into consideration.

Take a look at the Howard Tenens Andover & Swindon case study, for example, where some plants could cause adverse effects on humans if you came into contact with them. The site gardener advised that the trees couldn’t be cut back until Autumn when the leaves had fallen. Our team could return to the site to complete the necessary work in Autumn when the leaves had fallen and the trees were cut back.

The health and safety of our customers and our team is of paramount importance to us here at Cladding Coatings, and we would never do anything that would endanger our team or customers.

As you can see, plants can cause real problems for your property and its refurbishment. When contemplating external building refurbishment, It is important to get the help of an expert cladding refurbishment team who are experienced and that you can trust. It is also essential to tackle problems as soon as possible to prevent them from worsening.

We offer a range of services, including external wall cladding coating and gutter refurbishment. Take a look at our other maintenance and refurbishment services, or call our team on 0161 626 3493 to book your free on-site survey.

To view other examples of our top-quality work, head to the case studies section of our website.