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