Adding a splash of colour to roofline and cladding installations can transform a property, providing a home that’s bang on trend, says Colin St John, Commercial Director at Freefoam.
The market for home improvements boomed throughout the pandemic and for house builders, it’s showing little sign of abating amongst homeowners that seek properties that stand out from the crowd.
Last year, an estimated 66% of homeowners were planning home improvements, while 22% wanted improvements that added value to their home. In addition, according to research from property management professionals Warwick Estates, 8,714 new homes were sold across England and Wales in 2021, or 1.8% of the market.
While not ignoring the current economic climate, we must not lose sight of the fact that there is a significant number of people who still want to continue with their plans. This will be particularly true if the planned improvements are going to enhance, improve and bring added value to their homes.
At Freefoam, we’ve seen a significant uplift in demand for cladding and roofline products over the past two years. Last year, sales of cladding products increased more than 20% when compared to 2019.
Durable and stylish, PVC exterior improvements can include roofline and deep flow gutters to protect homes from increasing volumes of rainfall and more violent storms while boosting curb appeal. Cladding and roofline can also add value by complementing windows and doors, alongside offering a change in colour as part of a complete house look.
Where we are seeing most growth potential is in sales of coloured cladding and roofline products. In 2021, sales of colour and woodgrain fascia increased significantly in comparison to 2019. This is a hot trend that housebuilders can continue to capitalise on.
Grey expectations
In the past, popular shades for cladding and roofline fittings have been largely confined to natural wood finishes as well as more traditional white. Before the pandemic, we were seeing a real interest in our grey product lines, such as the Fortex cladding which includes four contemporary grey shades. And this has continued – more than 60% of all Fortex cladding sales in 2021 were in grey.
A popular choice for home improvements, grey cladding and rooflines can be a straightforward upsell to those wanting to complete the contemporary look of a property. In response to customer feedback, Freefoam announced the addition of a new grey shade to its roofline range in summer 2022. Agate Grey is soft grey with tones of green and offers a lighter alternative to the ever-popular Anthracite Grey.
A splash of colour
More recently, we’ve seen a shift to an even wider colour palette in the UK and this has been largely driven by trends in Europe. The market for cladding and roofline products is well established in Europe, and countries such as France, the Netherlands and Belgium strongly influence the trends we see here. Back home, there is definitely a growing appetite for colour products in the UK, particularly off the back of the strong trend to colour in windows and front doors.
Colour of the Year
One of the biggest colour trends for this year is blue. At the start of 2022, Dulux announced its chosen Colour of the Year 2022 was Blue Skies, a light, airy and optimistic shade of blue which felt like a breath of fresh air for a new year. Our Fortex range of PVC cladding comes in a variety of colours including Pale Blue and a deeper Colonial Blue.
Upcoming shades for 2023 will continue the pastel theme, with experts predicting ‘Digital Lavender’ to be named colour of year for next year. These shades are proving popular, giving builders the opportunity to enhance new and existing properties with a modern, fresh look.
Choosing lasting, vibrant colour
When offering coloured cladding, fascia and soffit boards, it’s important for builders to be able to guarantee it will not fade over time. To ensure the colour of our cladding and roofline products remains vibrant for years to come, we use our innovative and patented Colormax technology.
Our technically advanced colour technology uses a unique selection of highly colourfast stabilisers and pigments which allows us to offer a wide range of long-lasting colours from subtle gold and soft grey to striking black and anthracite grey. Our technology is so effective that we offer a 50-year extended guarantee on white products and an industry-leading 10-year guarantee on all other colours.
The colours are added to our products through a co-extrusion process which gives them a coloured top coating of rigid PVC-U, that is smooth, strong and hard-wearing. The process is quick and easy and it means that standard colours can be offered with no lead time, which is an advantage for busy builders working to tight deadlines.
The majority of our colours have RAL equivalent which allows for exact colour matching, so housebuilders can exactly match the colour of the cladding or roofline products to other elements of a home’s exterior.
With Freefoam products, builders can transform properties with a choice of coloured roofline and cladding, offering a splash of individuality and the perfect finish for any home.
Discover more from Freefoam by visiting https://freefoam.com/professional
