What to clad garden office with?

[Mr Scruff]

Having a garden office built. The quote for cladding in cedar has just come back at £2,700!

I know that larch is popular, though still quite pricey.

Are the composite alternatives worth looking at? I've seen thermowood cladding, but hard to find cost comparisons.

Thanks

[Simpo Two]

How about cedar shingles?

[OutInTheShed]

You could save a bit of money and reduce maintenance by cladding the less important sides in UPVC?
Wood cladding on a north side will just go manky down here.

Spend a few quid on some plants and a trellis maybe?

[Mr Scruff]

Thanks - as it stands the back will be clad in green box profile roofing sheets. It's side and front - I'd budgeted about £1k for it, so almost 3x that seems a lot!

[Snow and Rocks]

Is the garden office and setting modern or traditional/rustic?

I built quite a large shed/workshop last year and ended up going with treated softwood board and batten - it seems to have different names in different locations but googling that should bring up what I mean.

It's effectively 150mm x 22mm sarking planks with a narrow batten nailed on to cover the joins. It looks very traditional but smart enough with a coat or two of barn paint. Cheap too with the sarking costing around £6 for a 4.8m length.

[KTMsm]

Google Hardie plank, it's the most well known cement based option

I used grey wood grained upvc shiplap on my bay window - 10 years later still looks new

[OutInTheShed]

How many sq m?
Treated shiplap is 15 or 20 quid a sqm.

Materials of course are only part of the bill.

[covmutley]

Weve got cedral fibreboard cladding on our house. Its been there 4 years and sill looks perfect- im very impressed.

Not sure it will be cheaper, but at least avoids maintenance costs.

[PhilboSE]

Clad my garden room in Knauf aquapanel render carrier board then put EWI render on it. Practically maintenance free and cheaper than timber cladding.

[trickywoo]

What is the main construction?

Mine is 19mm shiplap. In its 6th year and still looks like new.

[thecopster]

Mine is ecoscape composite. Not cheap but cheaper than cedar and maintenance free!

[Schiehallion]

trickywoo said:

What is the main construction?

Mine is 19mm shiplap. In its 6th year and still looks like new.

Do you know what the wood is? I'm seeing various types of shiplap for cladding and for every place that says one type, there's a forum thread saying don't and to use something else.

[KTMsm]

Schiehallion said:

Do you know what the wood is? I'm seeing various types of shiplap for cladding and for every place that says one type, there's a forum thread saying don't and to use something else.

It very much depends what it's protected with and where it is located. After all, most sheds are made of a cheap shiplap and manage 10 plus years

I built my shed from shiplap from the nearest builders merchant, coated it when I built it and at 10 years old it still looked brand new but I put a decent overhang on the shed

[alfabeat]

I used Larch Grade B. Much cheaper than Cedar. Has more knots, but is perfect, in my opinion.

I bought from Vastern Timber.

Or waney edge - even cheaper and does the job.

[Schiehallion]

Local timber place only has "whitewood weatherboard" and I'm worried it won't last. But I don't want to treat it / change colour too much.

Otherwise I'm only finding rather expensive alternatives. I'm actually using it for a fence - about 3m, to replace a damaged section.