Brick Vs Hebel & Render

Anonymous101 on 22/11/2020 - 11:12
Last edited 24/11/2020 - 13:12

Update: Thanks everyone for your suggestions and sharing your experiene. I have decided to use brick for my build.

Dear fellow Ozbargainers,

Hope you are all having a great weekend!

TL:DR What to choose between Brick vs Hebel & render for a new house ?

I am planning to build a house and I have been suggested to use Hebel & render for instead of Brick. To be honest, I haven't heard about hebel and render until my builder mentioned it to me. So I was not sure which to chose from. Few of the pros of hebel and render as mentioned by builder are:

  1. Better insulation
  2. Something along the line of better fire proof and weather proof
  3. Less cost ( but doubt builder will pass it on to me)
  4. More flexiblity with the designing of the facade

I did a bit of research and found that few of the cons of Hebel and render are:

  1. High maintenance (compared to brick)
  2. Prone to crack

I guess the opposit of Hebel's cons would be the pros and pros would be cons for brick. But I am still not sure which is better in the long run and how they matter for resell. Also, I could combine both and use hebel for top floor as I noticed that on 2 storey houses top floor is usually much warmer than the ground floor. So If I use hebel for top I guess that would keep the temparature down significantly.

Anyone else came across this dilemma before? What did you end up chosing and why ? Anyone else has knowledge regarding this please feel free to share (especially people working in construction).

Also how much could I save if I chose to use Hebel and render instead of Brick ? (Just so I can haggle with my builder if I end up chosing Hebel)

I have added a poll option :)

Poll Options

  • 1
    Hebel and Render
  • 13
    Brick
  • 3
    Combine both (ground floor brick and top floor Hebel+ render)
Home & Garden

Comments

  • tsukito on 22/11/2020 - 11:25
    +1

    I do not have personal experience with building a house with either, however, a work colleague of mine built a house with Hebel, and during a storm, the roller shutters that were bolted onto the Hebel, covering his windows, fell off, after the Hebel around the bolts holding the shutters cracked and broke off.

    This was a newly built house that he had been living in for about 2 months at the time. He managed to argue with the builder to get them to cover the cost of repairs, but the repairs were quite serious, not just reattaching the shutters, but replacing the Hebel pieces that broke.

    He said to me that he would not recommend Hebel after this sort of experience.

    • ESEMCE on 22/11/2020 - 11:43

      Wow!
      I wonder if a combination of Hebel and Brick is the solution.
      Brick around the Windows and Doors where fixings are most likely to be attached.

    • Anonymous101 on 22/11/2020 - 12:05

      Thanks for sharing this. This is exactly what I was after, some real experience.

      I will need to discuss with my builder what kind of gurantee and warranty they provide for Hebel which would cover this kind of issues (if I decide to go with hebel).

      Tbh the main 2 reason, I am even considering hebel, are:

      1. Insulation (lower temperature during summer specially on top floor)
      2. Modern looking facade

      If I can acheive these two with Brick, I would go with brick.

  • slow on 22/11/2020 - 11:27

    Hebel is pretty common now, but the builder is correct with his advantages. It is a lot easier to put up panels than lay bricks, and he should definitely pass on the savings

    What finish would you want with the brick - face brick or render?
    If you are going to render both I would definitely go hebel, cant really see any advantage of brick for this

    If you want the look of face brick then go for that.

    And render does need maintenance, all render ends up looking tired after a few years and needs to be repainted if you want it to look nice.

    And as per the previous post, you cant attached things to hebel (even a washing line), the builder should have been clear about this and made allowance for it by putting in some type of stud

    • Anonymous101 on 22/11/2020 - 11:41

      Personally I like the brick face but with hebel I think it would be much easier to go with modern looking facade ( which I would like as well. But my main requirement is something strong and sturdy and for some reason I think brick would be that in the long run.

      One of the main reason I would like to consider Hebel is the insulation (not big fan of warm weather). I read online there is "remarkable" cooler temparatue with Hebel. But I don't know how low the temparature would be compared to brick. I would consider hebel if I can get 3-5 degree celsius lower internal temparature compared brick. Is it acheivable?

      Souce: https://forsyth35.com/2018/05/06/hebel-vs-brick/

  • bohn on 22/11/2020 - 12:31

    One of the main reason I would like to consider Hebel is the insulation (not big fan of warm weather)

    Hi OP: I have a solution for you. Whilst Australia is behind the times in regard to building construction methods - there is a way to achieve what you want using traditional construction methods that aussie builders are familiar with. Here is what a designer wrote on the ata forums about it:

    double stud wall. external leaf using minimum 140 thick stud .this leaf has no services in it, only insulation. the internal leaf , min. 90 thick , has the services installed in it .much better performance from the insulation with this method . the wall itself ends up 25o thick with a 20 mm cavity .other benefits include acoustic attenuation and deeper reveals ,meaning joinery can be recessed for improved performance . single skin timber framed wall give timber wall a bad name ,when it comes to thermal performance. double framed walls are the way to go !!

    • Anonymous101 on 22/11/2020 - 14:20

      Thanks

      Sorry I am still not very familar with most of the construction terminology. Would you mind dumbing down a bit for me.

      double stud wall. external leaf using minimum 140 thick stud .this leaf has no services in it, only insulation. the internal leaf , min. 90 thick , has the services installed in it .much better performance from the insulation with this method . the wall itself ends up 25o thick with a 20 mm cavity .other benefits include acoustic attenuation and deeper reveals ,meaning joinery can be recessed for improved performance . single skin timber framed wall give timber wall a bad name ,when it comes to thermal performance. double framed walls are the way to go !!

      So what part of these would be standard when building a house and which ones are additional ? For example, assuming double stud wall is standard, one of the leaves would be additional ? Also, would it add more cost?

      • bohn on 22/11/2020 - 15:11

        So what part of these would be standard when building a house and which ones are additional ?

        Single stud is normal here , often only 90mm. So you can only fit so much insulation in that 90, including services. Hence the poor thermal performance. Obviously it costs more to do double stud, as there is more framing, and more insulation. This results in much better thermal performance and if you don't like the heat, you will really enjoy a house that is made this way. However, every builder knows how to do this. Some newer building techniques that aren't as common in Australia would be priced higher by builders as it is not something they are used to.

        If you want a cheap house, don't expect good thermal performance.

        single vs double stud
        Using the above you can still have a brick veneer house (which has the thermal mass on the outside) and still be cool inside.

        • Anonymous101 on 23/11/2020 - 10:38

          Thanks for explaining.

          Sorry this will go over my budget :( so not an option.

          • bohn on 23/11/2020 - 11:06

            @Anonymous101: One thing you can ask is how thick the single stud wall will be?
            If it's 90mm you can always go 120mm or 140mm. This will enable you to fit more insulation.

            If you are on a tight budget there may not be much you can do.

      • bohn on 22/11/2020 - 17:33
        +1

        Also if you don't like the heat - make sure you have eaves that shade your windows during the hottest part of the day in summer. So many new builds have no eaves now (cost saving measure….). Don't worry the builder will say, you can put drapes up! Yeah, right. You can calculate the overhang required based on your location and window height etc here: http://susdesign.com/overhang_annual/

        Limit glazing on the west (preferably none). Helps if you have a decent sized block if you can rework the design. Obviously harder if the front of your house cops the west for example. We actually sold our old block as it wasn't suitable for a passive solar home. You can also get lots of good ideas here: https://www.yourhome.gov.au/passive-design - Double glazing is great - but, preferably wood/upvc frames, or thermally broken aluminum.

        Obviously doing a second storey complicates things… and even if you have a decent budget it will still be hot(ter) up there. On a low budget it will be nasty.

        • Anonymous101 on 23/11/2020 - 10:47

          Thanks for pointing this out. I will make sure there are eaves.

          Will discuss double glazing of the window glasses and wood/upvc frames with my builder and see what options I have.

          Thanks again :)

  • lgacb08 on 22/11/2020 - 13:58

    the only benefits of hebel & render is cost, it's simple and cheap to build, so unless builder passes this savings to you by good margin just go brick for the look. The rest of the benefits are just make up bs that builders put in in order to not passing on the real savings (insulation I'll tell you what and how things are done inside the external will have more impact on your energy cost than anything else).

    • Anonymous101 on 23/11/2020 - 10:48

      Yeah I agree. That's why I am not so keen on Hebel. Looks like brick it is :)

  • ja912son on 22/11/2020 - 14:00

    Hi OP,
    Living in a hebel+render house myself for almost two years.

    Pros:
    -Isolation: it does hold better than brick veneer structure
    -Modern look

    Cons:
    -Easy to get dirt on hebel and personally I find it hard to clean. It drives me bananas when I see dirt on my render wall. A bit spray of water with very soft brush will do the trick. No high pressure cleaner.
    -Sound isolation: well recognised that hebel+render has poorer performance than brick veneer in terms of sound isolation. If I could have done it again, I'd have upgraded all windows to be double glazing to improve this.
    -Be extremely careful when fixating heavy items onto Hebel. Obviously it doesn't hold well like bricks. So far, I only installed two outdoor pillar lamps and one outdoor powerpoint outlet to it. Floodlights,etc were done by the builder. Touch wood. Nothing has been wobbly or falling off.

    • Anonymous101 on 23/11/2020 - 10:49

      Thanks for sharing your experience.

      The cons seems to outweigh pros significantly. I think I will go with brick.

  • dcep on 22/11/2020 - 18:01

    best energy / insulation , is reverse brick veneer

    • bohn on 22/11/2020 - 18:57

      Double stud as I mentioned above will provide great thermal comfort (assuming it's all installed correctly and no gaps!) and will be cheaper than reverse brick veneer.
      All depends on the budget and orientation of the build etc.

    • Anonymous101 on 23/11/2020 - 10:51

      yeah I looked into this after you mentioned but seems will add cost. Sorry not an option at the moment. Thanks for mentioning this, otherwise I wouldn't know this was an option.

  • nswnotill on 23/11/2020 - 10:25

    Hebel cladding has advantages as others have indicated. However my understanding is that Hebel walls are not designed to be load bearing walls, so the roof structure and other internal beams must be supported on the timber frame. Brick walls can be load bearing if required.

  • shaybisc on 23/11/2020 - 11:39

    If I was building a house I would investigate Timbercrete bricks.

    timbercrete.com.au

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