Thread: Convert Fibro House to Cement Rendered House

Hi All,

I need some advise for my house. I am trying to do some face lift on the outside look of the Old Fibro (Maybe it's also called villaboard) House.

I have started to paint little part of the house but I don't realy liked that much. Then I bought a little sample of cement rendered look paint and applied that. It looked bit better, then again there are a lot of timber stripes where the fibro sheet joints are. So it still looks fibro house regardless how the paint looks good.

What I was thinking that maybe take off the timber stripes and install concrete/cement or blue board sheets then texture paint it. Would this or other meterials could work? Would it be hard and expensive?

Thank you in advance for your advises

Hello krm66,I think the blueboard would get you a better result if you decide to go that way.Even though you can get acrylic type renders that will go over previously painted(they advertise this,not me) cement sheeting (fibro etc)there would need to be a good bit of surface preparation carried out I reckon.We have just finished an extension using blueboard and a Rockcote acrylic polymer render and it has turned out pretty well.The acrylic polymer render might not be all that easy for a handyman to apply as we found it goes off fairly quickly and you have to keep up with it so you would probably need to have some experience with a trowel and hawk to successfully apply it.Having said that it would certainly give your house a lift.If you did decide to use blueboard you should get all the infomation about sealing it,meshing and finishing joints,where to leave room for movement etc,and follow them closely as it can be prone to cracking along the joints.Regards Terry

Just be aware that if the old sheet contains asbestos, it will cost an arm and a leg to get if removed and dumped.

If on the other hand you paint over it, it will lock the fibres in.

Al

Many contractors are 'ticklish' about working over asbestos.
If the sheeting is asbestos check out your options carefully & make sure whoever does the work knows what their doing in respect to messing with the sheets to cover your backside.
I was a third party to a case recently where the local council got involved & then the unions got involved & then workcare got involved & then the owner found her bank balance going rapidly south.

Thank you all for infos.

House has been inspected before and doesn't have asbestos. Are there any other options as well other then blueboard. Are there any other sheets comes thicker?

Thanks,

hello,

look at polystyrene sheets, which are light and thick and probably too good an insulator as people are finding out

look at hebel powerpanel, masonry product but heavier than many expect

look at quik n tuff, styrne and concrete panel

regards

myla

Thank you for the information Myla..!

The advice might be a bit late, but you could always just remove the timber battens and nail on some expanded metal, overlapping the sheets, then just cement render over it. I've done this before on an internal stud wall where the owners wanted to match the existing masonry rendered walls. That was quite a long time ago before blue board came out.
As for the large surface areas on the outside of a house, I don't know if I'd guarantee it against cracking. Better talk to an expert renderer first. It would probably be a bit dearer than the blue board option, but then again, if you cost in the removal of the old fibro, and all the mucking around putting extra studs in to support the joints in the blue board, you might end up in front.

hello,

good idea pawnhead about the expanded metal

done some around 18mths ago on a new extension, put metal onto marine ply clad walls

avoids all the removal issues, a bit of nailing required

thanks
myla

Thank you Pawnhead and Myla (and the rest) for the suggestions, much appreciated. After all these I need to sit down and make a decision.

Cheers and Happy New Year!