Page 24 - HW April 2022

building envelope – pre-cladding & insulation
what fittings and finishes it has, because it’s those underlying building performance characteristics that really improve the liveability, the performance, the ongoing maintenance and the ongoing heating costs of a home.”
I ask Jerry Friar about the role retailers and merchants can play in all this?
“I think the opportunity for merchants and retailers in New Zealand right now is how they can provide solutions for builders if time, labour, or material availability are impacting their projects.
“If they can offer a rigid air barrier solution to those builders, as opposed to flexible wraps, then that may give them the ability to better manage their workflow without the risk of weather ingress and to keep progress payments on-track.
“That’s the immediate opportunity but, once those customers transition or experience rigid air barriers as a solution, then the ongoing opportunity is to convert them wholesale and sell those performance benefits to the homeowner.”
Right now, however, admits Jerry, with increasing cost pressures, builders have little scope to flex, and unless a rigid air barrier is
a part of the building system then upselling a structural building component to a consumer is probably going to be very difficult.
What does he think about possible knock-on effects of the impending energy efficiency changes in the Building Code?
“The upcoming changes around insulation probably won’t have a significant impact on what we do,” he says, adding: “Although that it will be interesting to see what impact the subsequent proposed changes have on the market’s desire for thermally broken rigid air barriers.”
DISRUPTION BRINGS OPPORTUNITY
Skippy Bessant, GM at Independent Building Supplies (IBS), is happy with the uptake of its locally finished RigidRAP rigid air barrier products, although he admits to having to manage that demand, to ensure customers are not just stockpiling.
Cost of freight apart (which is “just killing everybody”), he says: “The market is very, very good – mainly because you can’t get weatherboards – so if people need to wrap their houses in something, they want to wrap it in something secure.”
With some home builds stalled, Skippy adds that builders are even asking how long they can leave their RigidRAP unenclosed beyond the standard 90 days.
Looking to get there first to deal with thermal breaks, IBS’ triple layer RigidRAP XT is being looked at for timber framing, thanks to the thermal break laminated on the back.
Timber shortages have also opened doors for IBS, whose RigidRAP XT for steel framed builds has also been seeing growth, he says, before recommending that we keep an ear open for news of house builders and frame & truss operations putting in steel frame manufacturing plants...
Plus, also with both eyes on future Building Code changes around thermal breaks, Skippy too reports enquiries from builders looking to use IBS’ triple layer RigidRAP XT with timber framing, thanks to the thermal break laminated on the back.
“There’s definitely some interesting opportunities,” he says. “For whoever starts thinking of it early enough to bring it to market by the time the Building Code really does change timber framing.
“The big thing that’s going to happen is thermal breaks on timber frames. It’s going to be a huge change to the way we build houses. And I think it’s all for the best.”
Making rigid air barriers better, Adhero is a sticky, uninterrupted building wrap designed to be laid over the face of a rigid air barrier board.
ACROSS THE BUILDING ENVELOPE
Covering the broader building envelope and rigid air barriers, Murray Durbin, MD of Enveloped, is enthusing about a Pro Clima product from Germany called Adhero, which is basically a sticky building wrap designed to be laid over the face of a rigid air barrier board.
“It’s an uninterrupted layer with no staples going through it, no punctures,” he says.
“A rigid air barrier is a good system, but Adhero makes it a great system. If your weather screen fails on the outside there’s this continuous sticky membrane underneath so there’s no way water can get through.”
Moving on, with Kingspan’s acquisition of Thermakraft, the combined operation now has interests in both pre-cladding and insulation – in fact, the whole building envelope.
Also across the broader building envelope and clearly also on a roll, Anthony Lehmann, Sales Manager NZ Distribution at Kingspan Thermakraft, says: “The acquisition of Thermakraft by Kingspan means that the breadth of our range is going to widen even more.”
So, in addition to synthetic underlays and flashing tapes the company will also have the Kooltherm insulation range, which is relevant to the impending H1 changes, because it can achieve the
22 NZHJ | APRIL 2022
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