Purchasing a house with shadowclad

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D.W

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#279699 2-Nov-2020 14:56

Considering placing an offer on a home built in 2018, cladding is shadowclad which has been stained.

Is in a coastal area with reasonable level of sun exposure.

I can find reference to previous court cases from 2017-2018 in regards to shadowclad and weathertightness issues. Does anybody have any further knowledge on this, are there particular suppliers/variations this impacted etc? I've asked for more information regarding the specifics of the cladding so I have a better idea of what I am dealing with.

Or am I better avoiding it completely? We don't want a home we have to re-clad in 10 years time.

tchart

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#2596388 2-Nov-2020 15:53

Dany, AFAIK Shadowclad was only ever a prodcut from Carter Holt Harvey (I worked at CHH for 5 years).

Our neighbours built using Shadowclad in 2015 (with Golden Homes). They stained it themselves when they first moved in and havent done it again since. The wall that faces out house gets a decent amount of sun and I havent noticed any issues. This is in windy Welly but not coastal. The stain still looks good.

So I suspect the original issues have probably been sorted out as many of those articles are quite old now and I doubt they would still be installing it in 2018 if it still had the same issues.

but...

having said that when we built (late 2015) our house was originally going to be Shadowclad but based on the information I had at the time we decided to go with Paliside instead. This was mostly due to me not wanting to ever have to paint or stain the house.

Delphinus

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#2596430 2-Nov-2020 16:58

Have a place I built about 11 years ago. Clad in shadowclad, and stained with an oil based stain. It's due for a restain, but other than that seems in good condition still. I have 600 eaves, which probably help. Living coastal in a very high wind area, and plenty of sun.

I've just built a garage and have also clad it with the same. No issues with it personally.

snnet

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#2596457 2-Nov-2020 18:15

Shadowclad as a system is fine, its maintaining it that causes any issue. Keep it maintained (i.e. stained/painted) and it'll be fine. It's a lot like cedar in that respect. If you let cedar weather away the same thing will happen.

Fred99

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#2596468 2-Nov-2020 18:43

I think some of the issues with shadowclad were with warping (of darker colours in particular).

I do know a builder who was cladding a house with it and lamented that at that time, there was only a guarantee of approved fasteners were used, he had to nail them in one at a time with a hammer - which is very time consuming. Couldn't use a nail gun at that time - but I bet a few people did.

snnet

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#2596470 2-Nov-2020 18:57

Fred99:

I think some of the issues with shadowclad were with warping (of darker colours in particular).

I do know a builder who was cladding a house with it and lamented that at that time, there was only a guarantee of approved fasteners were used, he had to nail them in one at a time with a hammer - which is very time consuming. Couldn't use a nail gun at that time - but I bet a few people did.

Of course it will come down to how it was installed - there are still certain types of cladding you aren't meant to use a nail gun to install

Delphinus

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#2596634 2-Nov-2020 22:09

I hand nailed the house (using stainless ribbed nails) and even with the ribbing they are popping out a little bit. For the garage I've screwed it all in using stainless screws. I do enjoy how many sqm you cover per hour when installing sheets of ply.

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MikeAqua

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#2596936 3-Nov-2020 11:01

What you really need to know is how well it has been installed. I suggest a building inspector would be your best bet there.

Mike

duckDecoy

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#2596969 3-Nov-2020 11:54

Years ago it used to have some delamination issues on the outer layer, unsure if that is still the case. Look for "bubbles" on the cladding, sometimes as long as a few feet, they were fairly easy to spot. They eventually will fall off if not fixed. The official solution was to get glue under the bubbles and glue them down again.

Was a pain for us because being 2 stories we had to pay for scaff to fix.

Fred99

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#2597332 3-Nov-2020 23:30

Delphinus:

I hand nailed the house (using stainless ribbed nails) and even with the ribbing they are popping out a little bit. For the garage I've screwed it all in using stainless screws. I do enjoy how many sqm you cover per hour when installing sheets of ply.

I screwed ecoply structural ply with SS screws over our entire house before recladding (quake repair). Rimu framing, so I had to pre-drill every screw hole. IIRC about 4,000 of them. Fun times.

MikeAqua

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#2597398 4-Nov-2020 09:31

Fred99:

I screwed ecoply structural ply with SS screws over our entire house before recladding (quake repair). Rimu framing, so I had to pre-drill every screw hole. IIRC about 4,000 of them. Fun times.

I re-clad a Rimu framed house in JH Linea. The framing was so hard you couldn't hammer a 4 inch plain-steel nail into it. The nail would just bend. Between drilling the Linea and drilling the framing dozens of drill-bits gave their lives.

Mike