At Nu-Wall

Comparing the durability of aluminium in a marine coastal environment with that of steel – look at the images in this post. These show an umbrella stand that was placed on the deck of a new beach house approximately four and a half years ago. The house is elevated, approximately 100M from the open sea and frequently takes a lashing from the elements.The umbrella stand was made from heavy-gauge steel with a powdercoat finish. The steel has corroded badly underneath the powdercoating and the post has rotted through completely at the base. Behind the umbrella stand can be seen an area of Nu-Wall Louvre120 cladding on the house which has been exposed to the same environment for a slightly longer period – it looks the same as the day it was installed. Granted, the quality of the materials used in the subject umbrella stand may not be the best, but these images do serve to illustrate why aluminium is a superior choice for exterior cladding in such environments.

Curing of powdercoat completed

Nu-Wall cladding is supplied to a project pre-finished to the specifications required by the customer or the designer. Some specifications call for anodising, which retains the metallic appearance of the aluminium, either in natural silver or with a bronze colouring. The majority of specifications we see, however, call for finishing with a powdercoat colour.

Powdercoating involves the application to the aluminium of the colour in a powder form – this is done electrostatically; the powder being attracted to the metal by an electrical charge. At this stage in the process, the appearance of the powder is almost like velvet as it has yet to be cured. The curing takes place in an oven at a temperature of around 180 – 200 degrees C, and it is this stage that turns the powder into the hard, durable finish with an appearance similar to sprayed paint.

Powdercoat colours are available from several manufacturers in New Zealand; each having a wide range of stock colours for which colour charts and swatches are available on request. Due to the different manufacturing processes involved, the range of “stock” powdercoat colours offered is nowhere near as extensive as with paints; however it is a fact that small batches of powder are able to be made to order, allowing the specifier to basically choose any colour they want. We do find, however, that in the vast majority of cases a satisfactory choice is able to be made from the manufacturers’ colour charts.

The durability of powdercoat finishes is extremely high – the Nu-Wall cladding will retain its appearance year after year with the only maintenance requirement being washing with water containing mild detergent. The adhesion of the cured powder to the aluminium is very strong and has great resistance to chipping. For applications located in environmentally harsh locations; e.g. coastal marine, manufacturers offer extra-durable formulations of their powdercoat products which are warranted to meet such performance requirements.

Damage can occur to powdercoat finishes – while they are much more durable than a normal paint finish, accidents sometimes happen, necessitating some localised remedial work. For such occurences touch-up products are available which have been colour-matched to the powdercoat manufacturers’ ranges. These are available on short lead-times, in either dab-stick or aerosol spray forms.

In 2010 our growth looks set to continue, with many projects in the pipeline on both sides of the Tasman. We also plan to research opportunities for Nu-Wall into other export markets, hopefully increasing our contribution to New Zealand’s export figures with this fantastic ”home-grown” product.

Other activities  for the New Year include our relocation to new showroom/office premises at 750B Great South Road, Penrose, Auckland at the end of January. Around the same time we expect to be able to implement use of our new estimating & quoting software, currently in final stages of development by SoftTech, based upon their “V6″ product which is widely used in the aluminium joinery industry. As well as enabling us to produce materials estimates and quotations much more efficiently, Nu-Wall V6 will produce comprehensive documentation, designed to facilitate the work of the cladding installer when cutting material on site. It will also provide us with the ability to respond quickly to requests for re-quoting in cases where there have been changes to the project’s design.

Look out for further updates from us in the New Year. Until then, we at Nu-Wall wish all a Happy Christmas and New Year.

Further afield, Nu-Wall has been installed on several medium-rise apartment developments by Rainbow Aluminium, our Business Partner in the Republic of Maldives, and last year we delivered approximately 1,000 sq M of our Ripple150 profile to a customer in Saudi Arabia for installation on a new hospital.

But wait – there’s more! Nu-Wall attracts attention around the world, thanks largely to the internet. The product is pretty much unique in its field and we constantly receive enquiries from around the world. In many cases the cost and lead-time involved in shipping tonnes of aluminium around the world result in these enquiries progressing no further. However, we are currently processing an order for 180 sqM of Shiplap for despatch to Glasgow, Scotland – where it will be used to clad a new Childcare Centre currently under construction. To quote our customer – “I very much like your system and the way it goes together. It looks more engineered than some of the competitors.” This is the first stage of the project and we look forward to delivering a similar sized order in the new year.

Window head alligned with full board

With many claddings the installation process is facilitated if certain features in the design have been positioned with the modular size of the cladding in mind. Nu-Wall is no exception, and perhaps the biggest favour the designer can do for the builder or cladding installer is to plan for window and door heads to be aligned with a full board. For example, if specifying Nu-Wall Shiplap, which has cover width of 150mm, to position joinery heads at a height from the cladding’s lowest point which is a multiple of 150. Enabling the use of a full board above a joinery head avoids much time consuming work for the installer; it also results in a tidier finished appearance at these details. Obviously it may not be feasible to achieve this with every window & door, particularly on multi-storey buildings.

Nu-Wall Installation

Nu-Wall has always been supplied to the market on the basis of beng able to be installed by any competent builder who is familiar with timber-framed construction. There are no specialist processes involved; the extruded profiles are cut to the required lengths on site and fixed to the structure, following our published specifications.

Residential projects involving Nu-Wall cladding commonly lend themselves well to having the cladding installed by the builder who has been engaged to manage the whole project. In many such instances a builder will be encountering Nu-Wall for the first time and may be somewhat apprehensive about working with an unfamiliar product. This is usully addressed quite simply by our spending some time with the builder and his team discussing installation procedures prior to commencement. Following this, installations tend to go smoothly with any queries being able to be dealt with via phone.  With few exceptions, at the end of the job the builder feels that they have learnt something worthwhile and also feels confident about tackling the next Nu-Wall job. Sometimes a builder does not have the resources to apply to installation of the cladding; in these situations we are able to refer them to a third-party contractor who is experienced with the product.

Commercial projects commonly involve subcontracting Nu-Wall installation to a third-party; however, as above, we can provide assistance and support to the main contractor, should they wish to handle the works directly.

BRANZ Appraisal #556 – This relates to direct-fixed installation of Nu-Wall weatherboards in a vertical orientation. The Appraisal supports application of the product to the full extent of E2/AS1; i.e. up to risk score 20 per Section 3 of the Clause. Installed in this manner per our published specifications, the cladding mimics a cavity-type installation, the space behind the extruded profiles being pressure-equalised with the exterior via venting in the channel which locates the cladding at the bottom.

BRANZ Appraisal #557 – This relates to direct-fixed installation of Nu-Wall weatherboards in a horizontal orientation. The Appraisal supports application of the product up to risk score 12 per Section 3 of E2/AS1.

To relate the BRANZ-appraised applications of the product back to the Acceptable Solution, it could be said that –

1. When installed in a horizontal orientation the product performs similarly to bevel-back weatherboards.
2. When installed in a vertical orientation the product performs similarly to vertically-applied corrugated metal.

These Appraisals are available for downloading from BRANZ’ website. They are also available for downloading from the Document Downloads page of our website at www.nu-wall.co.nz, along with our standard details relating to all three installation methods.

Contemporary "bunker"

Weatherboard house

Nu-Wall was developed around twenty years ago and offered to the New Zealand market as a low-maintenance alternative to painted timber weatherboards. Two profiles were offered which both had traditional weatherboard profiles. A house clad in one of these profiles, finished in a conservative solid powdercoat colour, would indeed have been almost indistinguishable from a timber weatherboard-clad house, when viewed from across the street, for example.

Mediterranean-style houses were in vogue around the time of Nu-Wall’s introduction; hence, there was not much excitement generated by low-maintenance weatherboards as the new “monolithic” type of claddings, mostly consisting of fibre board or polystyrene with a textured coating, were better suited to the prevalent designs.

Weathertightness problems, which manifested themselves in numerous buildings using ”monolithic” claddings, have resulted in the commonly known “leaky building” saga, with many owners having faced the necessity of major remedial repairs – and with many more yet to come.

Major amendments to the New Zealand Building Code, particularly relating to weathertightness, prevent many of the practices which resulted in “leaky buildings” from being repeated, and the problems have been widely covered in the Press. The outcome is a “swing” back towards weatherboard-type claddings, which generally make for an easier Building Consent process; additionally these claddings are regarded as being more trustworthy, having served New Zealand buildings well for a hundred years and more.

Maintenance of timber weatherboards was an accepted necessity in the past; repainting the single-storey home being  one of those chores to be completed during the finer months every few years. These days the majority of new homes being built are two storeys or more, rendering a DIY repaint problematic. Also, people these days are much busier; most preferring to devote their free time to leisure activities, rather than maintenance.

A truly low-maintenance weatherboard cladding would seem to present the ideal choice for anybody embarking upon the process of building a new home. Nu-Wall offers this concept entirely – the highly-durable aluminium weatherboards will outlast the life of the building and the factory-applied finishes will stay looking smart with periodic washing. The cladding has been tested by BRANZ, who have issued three Appraisals, covering all applicable installation methods. Furthermore, the wide range of Nu-Wall profiles now available means that a house clad with the product no longer needs to look like a weatherboard house, though it can if that’s what the owner wants – it all depends on the Nu-Wall profile selected.

Design for a Weathertight Future with Nu-Wall

Costs of Nu-Wall vary, depending upon the particular profile and finish selected. Another influencing factor is the degree of detail in the design (windows, doors, corners etc.) relative to the area of cladding – this is because Nu-Wall is supplied as a total system, including trims and flashings for such details. Hence, the cost of cladding for a plain area of wall will be a lot less in terms of dollars per square metre than cladding for small areas around windows and doors. For most Nu-Wall profiles, finished in a standard powdercoat colour, an indicative cost of the materials required would be in the region of NZ$120 + GST per square metre. Installation costs also tend to vary depending upon the complexity of the design; however no specialist processes are involved and the work can be carried out by any builder at the applicable hourly rates.

More accurate costing can be determined through our conducting a “take-off” from the project plans in order to produce a schedule of the required materials. While this is normally carried out at the stage of tendering or quoting, it can be done earlier in the process if required for budgeting purposes.

Long term cost of ownership is one of Nu-Wall’s key differentiators in a comparison with other cladding materials. The aluminium weatherboards are extremely durable and will outlast the life of the building, while the finishes applied will stay looking good for years with just frequent washing – even in coastal locations. At the end of the building’s life the Nu-Wall cladding will be able to be removed and sent for recycling – partially recovering the initial investment in the product and also avoiding the problem of disposal. Try doing that with fibre-cement….