We start building our new house soon and for the external cladding we're going to use the ZEGO polystyrene Z-board(150mm thickness)
Has anyone used it and what was the experience.
ZEGO Z-board polystyrene cladding
(14 posts) (10 voices)-
norbert
MemberWe have just moved into our new house and in regards to insulation qualities the Zego Z-board is really good.However the 150 mm board turned out to be not one 150mm thick board but instead consisting of two panels (64mm+100mm)
Those two panels slide into each other (dove tail)which then results in a thickness of 156mm.According to installation instructions the 64mm panel needs to be screwed to the frame first and then with some foam in beetween the 100mm panel slided into the other.On Zegos website there was no mentioning about this fact.It resulted in a nightmare of an installation taking weeks of fidling around windows and eaves.In this case the panels needed to be slided together beforehand and then bolted onto the frame using 180mm long screws.
Despite as advertised that the panel would come with 180mm screw it only came with screw long enogh to bolt the 64mm panel onto the frame.
As soon as I complained about what to me was an idiocy of a design the 150mm was taken of Zegos website.I never heard of the mob again,very poor customer service indeed.
We are located in Woodend Victoria.Cheers,
Norbert
Posted Sunday 23 Aug 2009 @ 4:16:52 am from IP # -
Norbert,
Feedback about materials and methods is always useful, and it seems a shame that your supplier wasn't a bit more 'up front' about an appropriate assembly sequence.
Sounds to me that the material was aimed at being installed on the walls before there was a roof frame or any windows in the way of the vertical dovetail assembly - but of course here everyone puts the lid on and windows in before they clad the walls.
A shame that an effective sounding product has been let down by a lack of instruction on the part of someone somewhere.
How expensive/specialised was the render goo on the outside?? That has always seemed to be a stumbling block with styrene based wall claddings, and a few times when clients have asked about them, the final installed and finished cost appears to be a closely guarded secret - which of course means the product is crossed off the list of possibles.
Posted Monday 24 Aug 2009 @ 7:04:13 am from IP # -
norbert
MemberJohn,
The 3 coat acrylic render we used cost around $50 per m2 and the Zego board was some $ 60 per m2 so a total of $ 110 material cost per m2.This doesn't include installation
I've estimated that a m2 of brick wall laid cost around $100 so bricks are somewhat cheaper.
The 150mm Zego board we used has a R-rating of 4.5 so one could save money by not using wall bats.At the end of the day it was the insulating property of polystyrene why we decided to go with it.I've put R2 wall bats in between the ceiling studs and then a layer of R4 bats over the top.This seems to work great.If for instance we turn off our hydronic heating around 9pm then at 5.30 the next morning the temperature inside the house only drops by some 3 degree.
I was told not long ago that unfortunately due to new bushfire regulations in Victoria, new buildings would no longer get building approval using polystyrene cladding.Posted Monday 24 Aug 2009 @ 7:11:51 pm from IP # -
Norbert,
Thanks for the information.
Regarding the building approval for the rendered polystyrene wall systems, ability to use them or not should depend upon the AS3959-2009 'Bushfire Attack Level' applied to the actual site.
Low risk sites such as BAL-Low and BAL-12.5 are similar to the previous 'Bushfire Level 1 Construction' from AS3959-1999 (that theoretically applied before March 2009) and my understanding is that most rendered polystyrene wall claddings passed 'Level 1' criteria.
I read an information sheet (some time ago) stating that a polystyrene industry group was aiming to submit wall materials for 'Level 2' testing.Suppliers should be able to provide information on what BAL approvals they have in place.
Posted Monday 24 Aug 2009 @ 10:37:39 pm from IP # -
colins
MemberWould be appreciated if anyone could feed me some info re yellow/ greenboard suppliers in NSW. I can only find suppliers in Qld, apart from some local hardware outlets that appear intent on "tearing me a New one"! Attempts to contact Qld suppliers have been fruitless at this stage
Posted Monday 23 Nov 2009 @ 6:37:17 am from IP # -
jacyh2
MemberAm looking at building a 4 bed Loft house home down in nsw snowy region. Looked at using Timbercrete but stumbled across green energy bricks - has anyone out there used them and if so could give feedback as to ease of use for builder (we're in sydney so would have to get a builder to use. also as to cost and also internal finishes?
thanksPosted Wednesday 3 Mar 2010 @ 12:15:21 am from IP # -
ghostgum
MemberNever used them. Those green energy bricks look interesting. With an R8 wall, you will also want to pay careful attention to roof insulation, windows and any points of heat leakage. Is this going to be a weekender / winter skiing base? With a bit of care in the design you might be able to have a nice warm place without much extra heating. If it is a weekender, I'd consider using a solar air heater that draws air from outside to keep the air fresh and warm when you arrive on a Friday night.
Posted Wednesday 3 Mar 2010 @ 2:33:47 am from IP # -
Daniel Boon
MemberR-Max manufactures all the polystyrene in Australia and also includes a termite poison in the sheet (40mm + thicknesses); they will tell you local distributors and you need to make them compete against each other ... different colours are just ways of companies claiming that its 'their' product ....
An R8 brick ... I think not.
Posted Thursday 11 Mar 2010 @ 6:03:37 am from IP # -
Frateco
MemberLook I am going to really leap on the green platform and question the environmental impact of the green energy bricks. I smell a bit of green washing. I
Polyisocyanurate is not a nice material. It is an improved polyurethane that we all know manufacturing process of this stuff is not benign to any environment. "Rigid polyisocyanurate insulation is foamed from freon gas, a fluorinated hydrocarbon often used as a refrigerant and until the early 1980's, as a propellant in aerosols. [Currently non HFC gases are used for foam insulation production --DF]"
This is my beef, folks - we produce and use toxic, environmentally-unfriendly materials to make better insulation products so we can use less energy to reduce our emissions and save the environment. That sounds nuts????!!!
Posted Thursday 18 Mar 2010 @ 7:16:15 am from IP # -
renderguy
MemberHi Daniel,
Although R-Max manufactures a lot of the polystyrene produced they do not manufacture all the EPS cladding available, Polyblock manufacture their own board (national polystyrene), NRG Greenboard have their own manufacturing plant where they only specialize in wall cladding sunhoods and blades. I believe that think yellow and pretty much any Grey board from places like la farge and Melco is made by R-Max, from what I have heard from the former Rmax Rep, EPS Cladding is about 3% of their manufacturing process.Shame to hear about the Zego it looks a good product with a great R rating. Interesting the costs from what I have researched in SEQ (and dont hold me to it) the EPS System of install, render and membrane paint(Rockcote Triple R 10 year warranty) with sealant and waterproofing around windows can be as low as $90 pm2 for a basic low set home for a 60mm system, compared to brick rendered and painted around $115 - $120 brick veneer will of course have a lesser R rating and this is also not considering time, we knock a 4 bed low set house over with a full system in around 4 days this can prove valuable for a lot of our clients.
Posted Tuesday 27 Apr 2010 @ 3:20:40 am from IP # -
BuildGreen
MemberHi Colins, I am building at the moment in Northern NSW and are using a mob called Bercon. They use Think Yellow which is more or less the same as the green board. Really nice bloke there...his name is Tony. He is really up to date with rendering products and knows a lot about EPS cladding. They are doing a fantastic job with my house. Hope this helps.
Posted Friday 4 Jun 2010 @ 9:01:31 am from IP #
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