Add a splash of colour to roofline and cladding installations this year to give customers an on-trend home which is as individual as they are, says Colin St John, Commercial Director at Freefoam.
The market for home improvements has boomed throughout the pandemic, and this trend shows little sign of slowing as people continue to spend their money on putting their stamp on a new property or making their existing house into a haven from everything going on in the world.
Last year, an estimated 66% of homeowners were planning home improvements, including 15% who wanted to improve their roof. We expect the statistics for this year to be similarly high.
At Freefoam, we’ve seen a significant uplift in demand for cladding and roofline products over the past two years. In 2021, sales of cladding products increased more than 20% when compared to 2019. These durable and stylish PVC exterior improvements can be standalone improvements such as roofline and deep flow gutters to protect your home from increasing volumes of rainfall and more violent storms, while also boosting curb appeal. Or cladding and roofline can complement new windows and doors and a change in colour as part of a complete house transformation.
Where we are seeing most growth potential is 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 installers and suppliers can capitalise on in 2022.
Grey expectations
Much like window and door colour options, in the past, popular shades for cladding and roofline fittings have been largely confined to natural wood finishes as well as more traditional white.
But the British public are getting bolder with their colour selections and before the pandemic, we were seeing a big response to our grey product lines, such as our 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.
Grey is a modern and versatile option and it has been a popular choice in home improvements for a couple of years now for everything from windows and doors to paving and paint. This means grey cladding and rooflines can be a straightforward upsell for homeowners wanting to complete the contemporary look of their property.
A splash of colour from the continent
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, Netherlands and Belgium strongly influence the trends we see here in the UK, which is still very much in its infancy for these kinds of products.
On the continent, homeowners prefer bolder colour choices and this has inspired manufacturers like Freefoam to expand our colour ranges for cladding, soffits and fascia boards, as well as our selection of styles. But 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.
What colours are trending for 2022?
One of the biggest colour trends for this year is blue. Dulux recently announced that their Colour of the Year 2022 was Blue Skies™, a light, airy and optimistic shade of blue which feels like a breath of fresh air for a new year.
For customers looking to emulate the trend for Blue Skies™, our Fortex range of PVC cladding comes in a variety of colours including Pale Blue and a deeper Colonial Blue.
Other design commentators, such as Houzz, are predicting green to be a major trending colour for 2022, mirroring our need to connect with nature and bring the outside in. Neutral greens, such as the Chartwell Green used for our woodgrain finish fascia boards, soffit boards and window trims, are set to be an increasingly popular pick this year.
Choosing lasting, vibrant colour
When opting for coloured cladding or fascia and soffit boards, one thing homeowners are keen to ensure is that it’s going to last and 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 installers working to tight deadlines.
If homeowners – or specifiers – are looking to match the colour of the cladding or roofline products to other elements of a home’s exterior, a majority of our colours have RAL equivalent which allows for exact colour matching.
With Freefoam products, installers can help homeowners transform their properties with a range of colour opportunities for both roofline and cladding which offer a splash of individuality and the perfect finishing touch for any home.
Do you need a sample of Freefoam cladding?
Order a FREEE sample here
Want to find out how many cladding boards you need for your project?
Use our handy cladding calculator
Want to experiment with colour cladding option for your project?
Go to our Cladding Visualiser and have a play!
Want to find a trusted local installation company to fit cladding to your property?
Go to mycladding.com and we'll put you in touch
Want to find out the cost of cladding from a local Freefoam stockist?
User our handy Stockist Finder to contact a supplier in your area – who will be happy to advise on price and availability.
As featured in Glass Times March 2022 edition