Europe
A
Weather
Resistive
Barrier
Solution
for
Rainscreen
Claddings
pro clima SOLITEX EXTASANA ADHERO® Weather Resistive Barrier (WRB), mineral wool insulation and Terracotta cladding were applied to the CLT in-factory before being transported to the site.
The Auckland City Mission project was a great opportunity for Stevens Lawson Architects to implement a range of new technologies in a multi-storey building within a tight space.
The project is currently under construction and includes XLAM CLT solid timber structural panels, mineral wool external insulation, and Terracotta rainscreen cladding, with a level of prefabrication to minimise time on site. Once completed, the building will become a landmark and a real asset for the city by providing safe and comfortable long-term housing for Auckland’s homeless population.
How was this project implemented?
Protecting the CLT from external moisture is key to ensuring its durability and structural integrity in the future. To ensure the whole assembly was kept dry from the start, cladding contractors Symonite chose to pre-apply pro clima SOLITEX EXTASANA ADHERO® Weather Resistive Barrier (WRB), mineral wool insulation, and Terracotta cladding system to the CLT in the factory before it was transported to the site.
pro clima SOLITEX EXTASANA ADHERO® (or just ADHERO for short!) is a BRANZ Appraised self-adhesive Weather Resistive Barrier (known as a wall and roof underlay), which consists of a non-porous thermoplastic membrane (TEEE) protected by a layer of UV stable fleece. The product has 10,000mm water column resistance and is airtight yet highly vapour permeable. When installed on a solid substrate such as CLT, pro clima SOLITEX EXTSANA ADHERO® offers a high level of resistance against the elements and can be left exposed to UV light for up to 180 days.
On the City Mission project, the joints between the CLT panels were sealed with pro TESCON EXTORA® flashing tape in situ, and all screw penetrations made by the cladding brackets and insulation pins were sealed with pro clima TESCON® NAIDECK butyl sealing strip to maintain the integrity of the membrane. pro clima TESCON EXTOSEAL®, a stretchable one-piece sill tape, was applied to window openings as per E2/AS1, which makes it an easy solution for any builder to install.
Once protected from long-term UV exposure, pro clima SOLITEX EXTASANA ADHERO® and the system products remain functional for the life of the cladding itself, ensuring the building is an asset to the Auckland region for many years to come.
- Architect – Stevens Lawson Architects
Weather Protection Concept for Timber Structures
In the past, timber was mainly used on single-family and multi-family homes, but in recent years, timber construction has increasingly been employed for major projects such as office and administrative buildings, schools, kindergartens, modular buildings and the large-scale addition of storeys onto multi-storey residential buildings. Thanks to the high degree of pre-fabrication that is possible with timber structures, construction can be carried out efficiently, economically, precisely and to the highest aesthetic requirements – which also includes visible wooden surfaces with high-standard finishes.
This is where a major challenge arises: timber construction elements have to be protected against moisture over long periods during the construction period.
