right wood users, i’ve built a dormer, and had planned on using recycled plastic cladding on the outside in a fetching pebble grey. the only trouble is, it works out at £800… shall i use cedar at around £300? will it rot in 10 years time? do i have to treat it every year? i’d heard that it won’t rot if its able to dry out, ie not in standing water. any help much appreciated, thanks in advance.
ps, don’t want to use pvc, it looks rubbish

Lead?
Built the gaffer an office 7 years ago out of cedar. It’s gone a lovely silver grey now, so easy to work with and not a sign of rot. Use a breathable membrane underneath.

hmmm lead…don’t think i could carry it up the scaff…by the way code 4 6 inch by 6m is £39.99 at selco

mines clad in cedar, and is 40 years old at least.
not rotten yet.
YMMV

Sorry to piggy back on this but
I’m thinking of building a garden office and cladding with cedar. Does it need treating or just raw? Can I use king span on inside to insulate? I’ve just noted wrightyson comment re breatability, it never crossed my mind. Was anticipating wood frame, king span and cedar clad. Thanks.

Lead looks nice tho 😉
I built a bloody huge frame out of 4×2 cls , then wrapped it in a breathable membrane such as DuPont housewrap. Think at the time I basically used a breathable roof felt. I then clad in normal cedar shiplap, taking care to space correctly.
On the inside, 75mm cellotex then a soft wood match board if I remember rightly. Not a touch of damp or condensation through all manner of weather. It also has a cedar shingle roof with cedar ridges.

sounds nice, ^^

How about Trespa?

Mate of mine has just re-clad the top half of his house in cedar.
Looks great.
He put some kind of membrane underneath, and mounted the cedar on battens- not sure of the exact details. He had a roofer doing some other work who knew how to do the cladding, so I think he worked with him for a day to get the hang of it and then cracked on with the rest of it.

Trespa could be good or indeed any other external grade compact laminate but it’s expensive compared to cedar and you need the correct metal framed system for supporting it.

Probably overkill on a domestic dormer?