Hebel Matters

Versatile and elegant, Hebel allows modern homeowners to stay on trend by helping to achieve beautifully rendered facades

Trends come and go, but quality is forever. That is certainly the philosophy of Boutique Homes and their senior designer, Robert Nguyen.

Part of the ABN Group, Boutique Homes is a premium offering, marketed to second (or third) home buyers and families. Designs include a wide range of façade styles from traditional Hamptons to cutting edge contemporary looks.

Nguyen says that the Hamptons style is still popular with their customer base as well as its sibling, the American coastal look. The versatility of Hebel in achieving a Hamptons-style façade has meant that it continues to be specified for both these popular styles.

“We use Hebel for external rendered walls, on facades and around the rest of the home,” he says.

“We also offer the Hebel PowerFloor product that provides a 75mm thick solid first floor structure that feels as firm as a concrete slab and prevents noise transfer from upstairs to downstairs.”

“Hebel is so good for getting a nice rendered finish on a wall,” he explains. “And rendered walls are quite common with the Hamptons style. You can build a full Hebel house in that Hamptons style, although you will probably have some cladding such as weatherboard for the complete look.”

While the Hamptons look has been in demand with Australian homeowners for a few years now, Nguyen says that the style shows no sign of waning in popularity and he says they will continue to offer a variety of interpretations of the style at Boutique Homes.

“We’re finding that the traditional styles are still very popular, including our Hamptons, Southampton and Greyson facades, which are all available with rendered Hebel walls.”

He has, however, noticed a resurgence in demand for modern and contemporary facades in the last year or so, again using Hebel to achieve the smooth appearance demanded with more streamlined styles.

“The contemporary style has less weatherboard cladding, instead using different type of cladding such as vertical groove panels,” he says. “And the style does lean quite easily towards large rendered walls in light colours to keep that sort of modernist aesthetic. And Hebel works really well with that look.”

“The main benefits of using Hebel are shorter build times, compared to brick veneer construction, and getting a really clean and consistent, smooth finish with crisp edges.”

Nguyen says that light-coloured facades remain the most common choice in the new homes built by Boutique Homes and he thinks that won’t change.

“Light-coloured rendered walls are always on trend with contemporary designs, and Hebel allows us to provide this look with a very smooth, consistent and sharp render finish.”

“I think that light fresh look is really timeless; people like it,” he says. “Medium greys are becoming a bit more popular as well; more the warm sort of greys rather than the browns.”

“Over time homeowners swing between the browns and greys but we’re still in the greys at the moment, albeit towards the warmer side.”

Mixed material facades continue to grow in popularity, often a mix of render, weatherboard and brick, says Nguyen, although he tends to limit designs to no more than three types of materials on the exterior – “any more than that, we think it’s a bit busy and a bit over complicated”, he adds.

Many of their customers are choosing light coloured render and overlaying it with darker cladding or charcoal trims and roofing if they want to add a touch of drama.

 

About Hebel

 

Hebel is a strong, versatile, high performance building product made from Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (AAC). As Australia’s only manufacturer of AAC, CSR Hebel has over 30 years of experience meaning you can be assured you are getting a high quality product with the technical expertise to back it up. Available in blocks and panels, Hebel is easy to handle and quick to build with. Hebel panels contain anti-corrosion steel reinforcement for added strength and are available in a range of lengths for applications including walls, floors and external cladding.