Fibre cement gives builder elevate design flexibility, cement, fibrre

Due to their lightweight nature, ease of installation and flexible design options, fibre cement solutions and other associated cement composite products enable the creation of modern buildings that are sustainable and support circular economy initiatives.

Fibre cement materials in construction have several unique characteristics, such as being non-combustible; resistant to extreme weather and temperature; resistant to vermin and mould growth; durable for at least 50 years; and requiring no ongoing maintenance.

They are commonly used in commercial and residential homes, in the form of external cladding, internal lining, wet areas, floors and ceilings, eaves, and fencing.

The properties of fibre cement as a construction material also makes it preferable for use as a ventilated façade cladding for both newly built and renovated buildings, interior wall coverings, balcony balustrade panels, base course and chimney cladding, and enclosure soffit lining.

Compared to the components of concrete, fibre cement composite materials have improved toughness, ductility, flexural capacity, and crack resistance, particularly after cracks have already formed. In contrast, once cracking begins in concrete, it will increase exponentially and rapidly degrade the material.

Buildings constructed with fibre cement will stand up to extreme weather such as snow and frost, and the products are also UV-resistant and impervious to wood-boring insects.

A key driver for the growth of fibre cement as an external façade material has been the construction industry’s increasing focus on sustainability, which has impacted on the types of structures being built and the materials used to construct them.

Buildings have a huge impact on energy consumption and carbon emissions, estimated at 40 and 20 per cent of the global total, respectively.

In order to meet net-zero targets by 2050, the building and construction industry must decarbonise three times faster in the next 30 years, compared to the prior 30.

It is generally recognised that the easiest and most cost- effective measures to achieve significant change across the construction supply chain is to use less material while still meeting project requirements.

Fibre cement has substantially lower embodied carbon than traditional construction materials, as well as a lower weight when compared with conventional masonry solutions.

It has been estimated the embodied energy of a timber frame and fibre cement weatherboard wall is about 169 megajoules per square metre, compared to a cavity clay brick wall with 860 megajoules per square metre.

The production of fibre cement cladding and boards is typically eco-friendly, due to using sustainable raw materials and recycling the water used during the manufacturing process numerous times, as well as recycling solid wastes.

The main raw materials are cement, fibres or minerals, pulp (comprised primarily of cellulose) and water, with the added fibres non-toxic and featuring high tensile strength and flexibility.

Fibre cement products, particularly cladding, is completely recyclable and has enormous circular potential, as well as being a more durable and low-cost alternative to wood and stone cladding options.

These types of panels are thin and lightweight, and can be cut to size to clad virtually any building façade with a minimum of material use per square metre.

It is often preferred by architects over other low-cost materials like PVC and aluminium panels when designing modern buildings, as dense and high-quality fibre cement panels look like a much more expensive product and can emulate the appearance of stone, wood or concrete at a much lower cost.

Research undertaken in 2020 on fibre cement material for exterior walls found that it had many advantages like efficiency, increasing the quality of work, aesthetic qualities, low to no maintenance, and fire and water resistance.

It was also found to be optimal as panelling for an exterior wall, because the panel and the frame support were ready to use and could be applied as a secondary skin without additional treatment.

Fibre cement boards in other research have demonstrated great efficacy compared to other traditional materials applied as a finishing layer, combining technical and mechanical characteristics (resistance, maintainability) with optimal physical features (conductivity, thermal behaviour).

A study conducted this year investigated the mechanical and durability characterisation of laminated fabric-reinforced cementitious matrices (FRCMs) that contained four and six nonwoven fabric layers obtained from end-of-life fire-protecting t-shirts.

The authors said that utilising recycled fibres as reinforcement in cement-based matrices was an effective means of promoting waste recycling and adopting a circular economy approach in the construction industry.

They added: “Within this framework, the recycling and potential reutilisation of textile residues can improve the pre- and post-cracking performance of cement-based matrices intended for building components with up to intermediate structural responsibilities (i.e. panels and cladding elements for buildings).”