Preparation

COZENS, Philippa

BBSC 341 - Second Semester - 2002

Critique / Discussion

Zinc Cladding

This Zinc Cladding is designed in such a way to be weather tight and to keep the water out of the wood structure. Each piece of cladding is added to the wall in such a way to keep water out and to prevent damage to the wall. The wall is made up of timber framing, which has plywood attached to the outer side of wall, and then is covered with building paper. All these elements have to be put in place all around the building before the cladding can be slotted in one by one. Cladding is placed in from bottom to top to ensure that there is no water damage at the bottom of the wall. It is also this way as the piece at the top may have to be smaller than all the other pieces. Each piece is attached together by interlocking the top of one bit of cladding with another. Each piece is separated at 8mm intervals, and is checked to be level. Once each piece is separated it has screws drilled into the top of the cladding. Once this is done, the process can be repeated with another sheet of cladding.

The pieces of cladding are manufactured in Auckland, and are then shipped to Wellington; therefore all pieces must be specified in size and length by the architect. The house on Grafton Road in Roseneath has different heights of cladding up the wall; all pieces must be exactly to what the architect specified, otherwise more material would have to come from Auckland, and that can be costly. Builders also came down from Auckland to do the job; they were trained by the cladding company to do the job. All pieces are covered by a plastic sheet to prevent damage to the cladding during transportation from Auckland to Wellington.

Each piece of cladding slots into the one below simply by the shape of the cladding. This ensures a tight fit for the cladding, and also makes it waterproof, as water cannot get up and through the connection to the building paper and plywood. The cladding does not rust easily because of its material properties; this is especially important as this house is located by the sea and is in a predominant wind area. On the corners of the house the cladding slides into a corner piece, (which is also made from zinc), this piece is fixed to the building paper and plywood in a similar manner to the sheets of cladding.

The Zinc cladding is long lasting and durable to Wellington's climate; it however can stain easily, just by someone placing their hands on it. This does give off an unsightly look on the cladding, but can be cleaned easily. The ease of construction, only taking a day or two to place cladding on all of the walls; the durability of the material, and they way that it keeps water out of the building, makes this cladding system excellent to use in any construction.

Acknowledgements / References

Athfield Architects

Sean Watson, house on Grafton Rd.