New building on K-road with a surprising choice of materials.

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jpoc

1043 posts

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#237933 25-Jun-2018 12:36

The Herald's property site describes a flash new apartment building going up on the site of the old Dick Smith's on K Road.

https://www.oneroof.co.nz/news/35074/?ref=nzhhome

To quote one part of this item:

Other exterior materials include glass, vertical ribbed profile Colorsteel and Alucobond aluminium composite panels.

Or from another site:

http://www.kaneba.co.nz/what_is_alucobond.html

ALUCOBOND® is a light aluminium composite material consisting of two aluminium cover sheets and a core material usually made of polyethylene.

Or from the wikiP page on the Grenfell Tower fire:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grenfell_Tower_fire#Aluminium-polyethylene_cladding

One of the products used was Arconic's Reynobond, which is available with different types of core material—polyethylene, as reportedly used in Grenfell Tower

Who would be comfortable to live in a building clad in such material?

Dairyxox

1594 posts

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#2043501 25-Jun-2018 12:44

Its a nice material, and Architects (used to?) like it.

Shame its out of fashion now since its considered reasonably flammable.

I'm sure the architect & engineers have considered this, and are either:

1.comfortable with the risk,

2.or have taken steps to mitigate them,

3.or the product is not risky due to its improved spec.

https://www.eboss.co.nz/ebossnow/alucobond-plus-fire-retardant-aluminium-composite-panels

nickb800

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#2043512 25-Jun-2018 13:02

I'd be happy living in such a building, because:

1. Grenfell Towers had no fire sprinklers, whereas this building probably will

2. Grenfell Towers were completely clad in the composite panels which let fire spread around the whole perimeter, whereas this building has faces with other materials

3. Alucobond is both a brand name and a name of a specific product by that company. I wouldn't be surprised if they are indicating that they will use a Alucobond product in the general sense, but would actually use Alucobond Plus, which is the name for their fire resistant product. There is a stigma out there, so as a developer you would have to consider how that would affect your sales.

neb

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#2043698 25-Jun-2018 17:47

Dairyxox:
I'm sure the architect & engineers have considered this, and are either:

1.comfortable with the risk,

2.or have taken steps to mitigate them,

3.or the product is not risky due to its improved spec.

"Bud, if dynamite was dangerous they wouldn't sell it to an idiot like me".

gzt

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#2043750 25-Jun-2018 19:19

Not much cladding on that. Greenfell as I recall was not flame retardant + not installed correctly.

Aredwood

3885 posts

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#2043856 26-Jun-2018 00:07

Supposedly the official line in a large building fire over there is to not evacuate the building. And just wait for the fire service to put out the fire. It was over an hour before an evacuation order was issued. But the only stairwell was filled with smoke by then.

Not having sprinklers in such a building is crazy. I have seen the sprinkler system in an apartment building activate due to an actual fire. Smoke was starting to leak out of the windows when the sprinklers activated. The alarms had already activated. The sprinkler made one heck of a mess - lots of rusty water leaked out everywhere. But the fire was out in less than a minute.

The fire service just had to check for other fires and shutoff the sprinklers. Very little damage compared to what would have been a total loss of the building. And almost certainly some injuries.