As we are designing this house to live in for our next age (however long that lasts) we wanted a cladding that would suit the location, would require minimum care and preferably last for ever.
We started off with a visit to our Petone Home Ideas Centre where several claddings and roofing materials were on show. Having experienced several differing roofs in our time in NZ we did not want one that moss or algae grow on easily, that will easily support solar panels, and that will stand up to our marine environment. We walked through many new subdivisions here in Wellington and in Hobsonville Point, examining cladding, downpipes, roofs and their inter relationship. It became obvious that this is an area where some lateral business thinking needs to go on- perhaps a specialist company that could bring all the permutations and combinations together in a demonstrable form- perhaps on a truck that goes around the country to Trade Fairs? Pictures on websites were inadequate- we wanted to touch materials, see them in our preferred colours, see them juxtaposed against each other- no such luck!! Take a leaf out of flooring companies you roof/cladding suppliers- they have got it just right!
So we started out with PVC cladding - two products looked possible
- VinylCladding NZ www.vinylcladding.co.nz/
- Palliside www.palliside.co.nz
For a long time VinylCladding was a firm favourite, we even went to look at houses completely clad in it, but that was too much- we needed a contrast where the house changed shape to give it some character. It had some slightly deeper colours but Palliside was very pale and wan, although it looked to be a robust material.
For the other contrasting material we found that there was only really a choice of wood or aluminium. We have experienced years of looking after wood and did not want to repeat that experience and so started off to look at aluminium. Vendors were good at providing samples and colour swatches but there were not too many residential buildings with the kinds of profiles (and prices) we were prepared to look at. Eventually- in desperation-our builder suggested we look at "Shadoline"- now here is a secret product that does not come up in any aluminium cladding search. When we wanted to see the real thing we had to rummage beneath a salesperson's desk to find a bit stuck on some wood!! So much for sales and marketing at this large aluminium company!! Finally our builder got some samples, including an unnamed one that we liked, however as we went down the technical route of seeing how pvc and aluminium could be interfaced together we came to a grinding halt- neither party would guarantee their product next to the other on a house. So we found another aluminium profile from the same company that will contrast the one below we have chosen, (in a different colour) and it will all be a bit of an experiment for all concerned ! Watch this space when we get to put it on the frames.
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