# Forum Home Renovation Cladding  Blueboard (or similar) project

## Rhys93

Hi all
I am looking to build a privacy wall in the yard (actually built on a deck - needs to be lightweight). It is to have windows with louvres in for the view + privacy. 
This is the general idea with timber louvres. I want it to look like a solid masonry wall.  
The wall is exposed to wind and wind driven rain (coastal condition). Frame would be of treated pine. Wall is 2m x 5.7m x 300mm.
I will be rendering the blueboard with a texture coat. We have some Melbourne Acrylic primer and tinted tuscan roll on that was left over from the owner/builder we bought our house from (he left like 100 litres under the house, most buckets unopened, the house is clad with some sort of board). 
Some questions
-Should I place stainless steel or PVC corner pieces at every corner (to help a noob get straight edges)
-Should the board be 'sealed' on the inside? IE paint with roof sealer or something?
-Is my board joint placement suitable? (1200mm boards)
-What sort of acrylic joint/patching/filler is decent and available from standard hardware stores?
-Does the board need primer before texture coat?
-What board do you guys like, Hume Prima, BGC Duratex or other?
-What is appropriate tool for cutting those windows? 
-Is Blueboard suitable for placing flat on a window sill like this? (IE will the water pool there and ruin the board?). 
This is what BGC writes:  

> Duratex must not be applied to nominal horizontal surfaces such as the tops of parapets, sills, decking 
> upstands, etc. These surfaces must be sloped a minimum 
> of 15o to the horizontal for light-texture finishes, or a 
> minimum of 30o for heavy-texture finishes. The alternative 
> is to install a fully sealed and waterproof membrane system 
> immediately under the cladding on the horizontal surface 
> or install a capping.

  Seems to suggest that water leaking through into wall cavity will be the issue, but what about the longevity of the board and coating itself? I'm not too worried about a little water seeping inside the TP wall, it's completely external and is elevated from the ground.

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## r3nov8or

See red text   

> Hi all
> I am looking to build a privacy wall in the yard (actually built on a deck - needs to be lightweight). It is to have windows with louvres in for the view + privacy. 
> This is the general idea with timber louvres. I want it to look like a solid masonry wall.  
> The wall is exposed to wind and wind driven rain (coastal condition). Frame would be of treated pine. Wall is 2m x 5.7m x 300mm.
> I will be rendering the blueboard with a texture coat. We have some Melbourne Acrylic primer and tinted tuscan roll on that was left over from the owner/builder we bought our house from (he left like 100 litres under the house, most buckets unopened, the house is clad with some sort of board). 
> Some questions
> -Should I place stainless steel or PVC corner pieces at every corner (to help a noob get straight edges stainless steel
> -Should the board be 'sealed' on the inside? IE paint with roof sealer or something?not necessary
> -Is my board joint placement suitable? (1200mm boards). pretty good. If the middle window could move right you could eliminate the left join under/over the window. In general, joins further from window corners should be the aim
> ...

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## r3nov8or

You will also need to support the rather wide openings with lintels to prevent sagging over time 
re cutting the board, Ive always cut the board before installing, but your large openings may increase risk of breakage when lifting it into place. I either use a fibro cutter, or for lots of work, a fibro saw blade in my circ saw. Such blades have very few teeth, like 6 or 8 (can't recall exactly)

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## Cecile

My thought is that if you have high coastal winds that the wall may need some bracing at either end or it's possible that it will eventually be pushed out of plumb.

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## Rhys93

> See red text

   

> You will also need to support the rather wide openings with lintels to prevent sagging over time 
> re cutting the board, Ive always cut the board before installing, but your large openings may increase risk of breakage when lifting it into place. I either use a fibro cutter, or for lots of work, a fibro saw blade in my circ saw. Such blades have very few teeth, like 6 or 8 (can't recall exactly)

  Thanks for your thoughts! 
The framing going over the windows has 2 meter spacing between it's supporting posts, I am planning to use 140x35 pine (if I can find some that is dried)  through there as this is the height of the section over the window anyway. Is this suitable or are you suggesting something steel? 100mm Steel C purlin be worth a look?   

> My thought is that if you have high coastal winds that the wall may need some bracing at either end or it's possible that it will eventually be pushed out of plumb.

   Thanks for your thoughts, unfortunately bracing at the end is not possible. 
The best we can do is 4 90x90mm TP posts.  I'm hoping the windows will have some effect of reducing the force from the wind. 
It's likely it will have some flex but otherwise they'd need to be steel, the posts are already paid, cut and it won't be popular to waste the posts. It's possible to reinforce the posts by example some galvanised 65x3mm flat bar bolted down the side of the entire length of the post might provide some rigidity - do you think that's worth it? 
By coastal - we are about 800m from a beach in a large bay. Winds can be strong but we are not located on a cliff or severely exposed.

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## r3nov8or

> Thanks for your thoughts! 
> The framing going over the windows has 2 meter spacing between it's supporting posts, I am planning to use 140x35 pine (if I can find some that is dried)  through there as this is the height of the section over the window anyway. Is this suitable or are you suggesting something steel? 100mm Steel C purlin be worth a look?

   I'm in two minds. While it's not supporting any roof loads, I'd probably still go with hardwood or steel over those openings. 
Bracing is a good point made. Rendered Blueboard is prone to hairline cracks along the joins. You don't want any movement. You should brace the entire structure with ply brace, and on both sides too, before the blueboard. Stagger the joins in the ply differently to the joins in the blueboard.  It looks like you are also going over 5 metres, which most manufacturers would require a control joint for. Again, in two minds - this doesn't take any extra weight, but also isn't assisted by any other attachment to assist with stability. Make it as strong as you can, without defeating the purpose of the lighter weight..

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## Rhys93

> I'm in two minds. While it's not supporting any roof loads, I'd probably still go with hardwood or steel over those openings. 
> Bracing is a good point made. Rendered Blueboard is prone to hairline cracks along the joins. You don't want any movement. You should brace the entire structure with ply brace, and on both sides too, before the blueboard. Stagger the joins in the ply differently to the joins in the blueboard.  It looks like you are also going over 5 metres, which most manufacturers would require a control joint for. Again, in two minds - this doesn't take any extra weight, but also isn't assisted by any other attachment to assist with stability. Make it as strong as you can, without defeating the purpose of the lighter weight..

   Do you think 100mm lightweight steel C purlin would be enough? Been looking at the cost of these things and is pretty decent compared to hardwood or even TP at that size. 
Interesting point about plywood bracing. The fella's next door are building a clad house and they have ply all over their frame at the moment. However this is basically doubling the cost of cladding, mmm. Maybe it could be done with some diagonal bracing and/or ply on the interior and exterior corners (on back side of frame material), anything would be better than nothing. 
About expansion joint, It's kind of on the cusp, mostly the vertical joins will be hidden behind a planter box/pots as well, not too excited about the appearance of a control/expansion joint. More of interest will be keeping it square so the window corners don't crack and stopping the thing from flexing in the wind. 
I'm quite certain now my posts will need to be reinforced. Originally this project was to be timber clad (like a fence) but we decided it was too much wood colour and would not match anything else, a bit of flex was ok for that but rendered boards are not going to work with these posts. I'm considering removing the posts, ripping up the middle of them and bolting in some galv flat bar to give some rigidity. It's going to cost nearly as much as galv posts but those requires metal brackets and metal tools/fixings I don't have/ not familiar with.

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## r3nov8or

Your neighbour will be using so much ply because the extent of the openings doesn't allow enough width for angle bracing to be effective. The same with yours. You probably don't actually have to do it on both sides. It is said that tight nailing of the blueboard itself provides the bracing resistence but I'm not a fan, when you also want the board to provide the 'decoration'.

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## Cecile

When I was talking about bracing I did not mean bracing the wall as with brace ply or similar.  I meant that you may need a right angle to the wall, perhaps at either end, for stability. 
Good luck with it.

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## r3nov8or

That would be handy, but seems unlikely  :Smilie:  
although, maybe there is scope for a box bench seat along the bottom, would could form some form of bracing on the perpendicular?

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## Rhys93

> When I was talking about bracing I did not mean bracing the wall as with brace ply or similar.  I meant that you may need a right angle to the wall, perhaps at either end, for stability. 
> Good luck with it.

   

> That would be handy, but seems unlikely  
> although, maybe there is scope for a box bench seat along the bottom, would could form some form of bracing on the perpendicular?

  Hi,
Unfortunately the only thing to use as perpendicular brace is to the house on the left side, the less exposed side, and I think it is not good to attach this to the corner of the house (it's also about 100mm away + colorbond cladding). In the end the wall will need to brace itself unfortunately. 
There's going to be a planter along the bottom but this is only 500mm tall. The posts go 1.2m below but they definitely are wobbling at the top too much for rendered board. 
Best possible as far as I can see is to firm up the posts with a steel "spine". When I get some cash I'll go check out the steel shop.

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