News - 04/05/09
No waste, easy to use, and a ‘joinery finish’
Calum McAllister of McAllister Builders in Wellington has worked with most types of cladding – but has come back to solid timber weatherboards.
Calum was the first builder to build with the A-lign cladding system.
“I really like the traditional timber cladding, so I looked into A-lign when I heard about it and really liked it. It seemed really well thought out.”
With a contract to build a house for clients who had previously built with a composite product, Calum talked to them about the advantages of going back to timber in general – and the A-lign system in particular.
“Timber is a tried and true product, and Jenkin have made it easy. I showed my customers the A-lign brochure, explained that has been BRANZ appraised, and they decided to go with it.”
Calum said he saw a number of benefits with the system.
“They have longer lengths, which meant I could select lengths to suit the walls, and that meant less wastage. The kitset nature of the system with pre-made scribers, soffits, sills and box corners meant it was very easy to price. I could use the scribers as story rod to set out the weatherboards, and it was really quick to put up. It was a two story house, so it was much easier having pre-cut scribers and box corners.”
Calum said the result of the A-lign system was that he achieved the high standard of finish he aims for, but in much less time.
“It was just the ease of putting it all together, and having so many elements pre-cut knocked a week off the job. We got a joinery style finish. And it paints up well – two coats pre-primed, and the painters found it really easy to work with.”
“I’ve been up to the Jenkin factory, I’ve seen the level of quality control, the amount of thinking that goes into the product. Brent Speers was my rep and he was really easy to get hold of, and supply was very quick.
“I’ll be doing a lot more with A-lign.”