Page 26 - HW April 2020

pre-cladding & insulation
MAN PLANS AND the gods laugh. Not even the most determined pessimist could have anticipated such a sudden stress test for the building industry among others in the rst quarter of 2020.
Who could have planned for the postponement of renovations and the closure of all construction sites, leaving the birds with full dominion?
Many reading this article will have seen or experienced the sudden frantic rush to wrap and partially enclose half- nished homes as the country approached the start of a full blown Level 4 Alert.
Has the prospect of not being able to clad a house for an extended period of time touched on those supplying products that enclose new builds?
ABOUT CLOSURE – RIGID AIR BARRIERS
An alternative to tried and tested builder’s wrap, Rigid Air Barriers are increasingly used in commercial applications, with some products forming part of the total enclosure solution along with the cladding.
“ e rigid air barrier space has really grown, certainly within the commercial sector,” con rms Jerry Friar, National Merchant Manager at James Hardie New Zealand.
“ ere’s a greater need for compliance with changes to
the Building Code and James Hardie speci cally introduced products to meet these needs, like our new RAB Board 9mm.
“We’ve also carried out extensive testing around external spread of ame code changes to make sure that systems using both our rigid air barrier products, and our cladding, comply with those requirements in buildings above 10m.”
RAB board products can be attached to systems that are speci ed to meet re and acoustic requirements and achieve high levels of bracing in various building designs, including shear-wall designs.
meet boundary wall requirements in terraced housing, you can combine it with HomeRAB Pre-Cladding to wrap the rest of the external walls. is allows builders to stage their work and progress the project at a much faster rate than they would using exible wraps where early close-in can’t be achieved.
“We’ve got builders who are really committed to using our products, as well as speci ers who really see the bene ts when specifying. A key bene t of RAB Board and HomeRAB Pre- Cladding on-site is that they are gun-nailable and simple to install, so you don’t have to muck around with a screw gun.
“ ey are also score-and-snap, so there’s no need to pull out the circular saw or any other specialist cutting implements. It’s just a straight edge and a HardieKnife, minimising dust exposure.”
RAB ENTRY ABOUT CONFIDENCE
Winstone Wallboards entered the Rigid Air Barrier space less than a year ago, something that Market Manager – Residential, Gordon White, explains was mainly about having full con dence in a product with very high re capability.
“Following the Grenfell Tower tragedy, it’s been a moving feast to understand what people actually want in developments, and what the Government has been asking for.
“ e market has been trying to catch up to those re requirements and we’ve been making sure that our products and customers are able to comply with them. A high level of compliance is certainly justi ed with structural applications where there’s a risk of people su ering major loss of property.”
Gordon White says the last 12 months have been “pretty strong for the company with a lot more performance board-type product sales”, and the standalone dwellings market has been “solid”.
However most growth has been coming out of performance
“We know the benefits from a performance perspective – better bracing, better air tightness, and a more rigid structure – but then there are also
flow-on benefits to the project timeline”
areas related to commercial buildings, terraced homes and apartments.
“In the wrap space, you can break it down into two types of market: rstly buildings within 3604, which have a structure that
tells you what you need to do that’s pretty prescriptive; and buildings 10m and above, where it’s more about speci c design. We tend
Jerry Friar says James Hardie’s cladding products and HomeRAB Pre-Cladding are also in strong demand in the residential segment, both in detached and in higher density.
“We know the bene ts from a performance perspective – better bracing, better air tightness, and a more rigid structure – but then there are also ow-on bene ts to the project timeline.
“If you can get early close-in and council sign o , you can begin work inside the structure, and that allows you to bring progress payments forward, reduces costs on-site, and reduces downtime for sta .”
Plus, adds Jerry, because 6mm RAB Board is required to
to focus more on the latter.
“For buildings within 3604, there’s no strict re requirements,
maybe the odd boundary wall, and there isn’t that high level of testing compliance.”
As a result, says Gordon: “ ere’s an increasing amount of competition in that market space and you’re getting a lot more overseas wrap-type products coming in that are wood-based, because there’s an easier road to market.
“GIB Weatherline does play a little bit in that space but it really comes into its own when it comes to re and acoustic performance, and workability.”
24 NZHJ | APRIL 2020
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