My brother is in the process of purchasing a bungalow to renovate, of which part of the structure is prefab concrete. Can anyone suggest the best ways to insulate and render this element of the build - I believe @prodave has used wood fibre boards which may suit this requirement.

Yes indeed. My timber frame is clad in 100mm thick wood fibre board and then rendered. That system can certainly be used on brick houses so I see no reason why not on a concrete build.

@prodave am I correct in thinking it does nt require a ventilation gap? Also, could you give me an idea of the price of the board and render system? Is it a special render for this board?

That's right, no ventilation gap. You can also do a similar external insulate and render with EPS (or is it XPS?) based systems.

 

I can't give a price for the board as that was sourced by the builder who built my frame, so I never had an itemised price for it.  It did cost about £7K for the render and labour to apply it. It's a thin coat render system, I used the one from Baumit.com. the base coat is a lime based mixed from powder, and the top coat is ready mixed in tubs available in a range of colours and textures.