Hebel Or Bricks

Hi Guys need more help choosing between hebel and bricks. Which one is good and if I pick hebel what is involved in the maintenance etc pros n cons pls. Thanks heaps😄

DB

Hebel has been around for a long time and has its benefits. The only downside is that you would need to find a Hebel specialist in case any repair, renovate work to be done in future.

Thanks for your quick response, just wondering how to maintain hebel?

Thanks again
DB

DaniB
+1 (vote) For face brickwork no long term maintenance required
Concrete and panel construction
HTH

Hello,

I am knocking down and rebuilding a single storey house and my project management person who is friend of mine has recommended using hebel panels as they will save lot of $$ in his opinion. The reason he recommends this because the land is in slope from street to the backyard. Since the land is slope there will be more labour costs if I opt brick and not hebel. So, the house will be raised from the ground level on a slab and he thinks in that case hebel will be best to go with.
So, need to how much difference will be in the cost between brick and hebel? The house is 23sqs.
Just, to make clear I am thinking to live in this new house for around 6 to 7 years or may be less but not more than that.
So, can anyone please provide their opinions on this?

You would do better Focusing on the Design/Engineering Data and Flattening out the supply chain
and reduce costs there... BTW, you aren't even at the hebel vs brick cost stage...
Also ask your project manager to provide you with Data and Proof.
Flatten out the current AEC Process & supply chain ie,
Client->New home salesman-> Designer->Engineer->General Contractor->Subcontractor->Retailer->Dealer->Distributor->Manufacturer (10 Stages)
Down to ideally Client->Build/Partner->Manufacturer (3 Stages)
and save heaps
Disrupting The Residential Housing Sector
hth

Thanks for your prompt reply.
I know we aren't to the hebel or brick stage, but council in our area at plans and permit stage has asked what external material and colours we going to use. So, that leaves me confusing why they need to know now as the engineering drawing has done yet. So, my project manager has come up with that point. This locks us for later changing it to different external products we want to use which I don't think is right.

Of course hebel has to be rendered, which requires maintenance, as it starts to look tired after a few years

And are looks important to you - do you want render or face brick?

You should be doing the preliminary Design,Engineering and costings before you go to council
You will be slugged with price increases, additional costs, delays,etc, with any changes thereafter? hth

I preferred to have face brick as it gives bold look to the house. But, my project manager thinks it good to use hebel panel render thereafter to cut down the cost as my land is inclined and he thinks using bricks will be expensive in terms of labour costs and time. But, my thinking is if going with bricks only make difference of around $10k to $20k then I am happy go with brick than hebel including insulation and everything. And he has no idea how much will be the cost difference between hebel and bricks, but he says brick will be expensive as per his devleoping experience.

the preliminary design has been done and submitted to council for plans and permit approvals but now council has come up with some issue to resolve before going ahead with decision. They have asked for external material and colours for the house to submit before they approve the plans and permits designs.

Also, saying that my project manager said using hebel will save a lot of money in scaffolding compare to bricks. But wondering does scaffolding cost too much money and if yes how much $5k, $10k $20k. Any rough estimate. It is a 23sq house on inclined land.

Hebel walls come up quicker than Brick....thus requiring scaffolding rental for less time.

Scaffolding Costs are less than $500/wk
and the reason the council wants to know the building materials is they don't want it to Burn Down or Structurally Collapse

Thanks for your suggestions.
So, now I have to decide if I go with hebel or brick? is hebel as durable as brick?

rameshbhai Welcome to the forum
Try Googling Is hebel as durable as brick? & Check out Material Mechanical properties,etc
For project specific Data and Proofs use Building Information Modelling (BIM) on ur project
eg. Slab and Form work Costs

Also consider your finish. Render is like paint and will look old and worn after a while and need repainting if you wish
Brick will pretty much look the same forever

I read other forums and some say the repainting require after 7 to 8 years and that too depends on the area you live.
wondering if it will cost too much to use bricks or hebel panels on an inclined land. The land is 2 meters inclined.

A carpenter can put up Hebel in a few days whereas bricking may take a month or more and requires brickies. You don’t actually do any maintenance to the actual Hebel, Hebel is reinforced aerated concrete panels, the maintenance comes because the Hebel is rendered and painted. Any painted surface will require ongoing maintenance especially surfaces facing West. The render can crack especially if the renderer is a cowboy type and doesn’t do it properly, but a read through this forum will show the issues with brickies doing horrible brick work jobs also. Bricks virtually zero maintenance but will always be the same unless you render over and paint. Hebel whilst requiring ongoing maintenance always give you the opportunity to completely change the look of your house. From my research Hebel also comes out better for its insulation properties and sound deadening compared to brick.

All else being equal, Hebel should mean better insulation & quicker installation & an ability to patch over the final finish, with face bricks once it's done it's done.

Additionally, does Hebel require acid washing like bricks do? Because the builder is less likely to munt the finish on your aluminium windows if that acid washing isn't needed (I sadly speak from experience).

We'd probably have gone with Hebel and put up with the 10-yearly need to re-render (or at least paint), if the builder had been set-up to use Hebel. They offered it, but because it was a rare exception for them, it was considerably more expensive so we went with the low-maintenance face-brick instead. In a way I was glad, because rendered houses look very 1997 to me, and Sydney probably doesn't "need" the extra insulation (ie. it'd have made little difference to me). But … if the Hebel doesn't need acid washing, then in conditional hindsight I wish we'd paid the extra for the Hebel!