In recent years, the popularity of rainscreen cladding has increased dramatically as a durable building exterior that can offer protection against rainwater and high-pressure.
This in part due to changing trends towards sustainable environmentally-friendly façade solutions, an increase in profile since the world-wide news coverage of Grenfell tower in London and Torch Tower in Dubai in 2017, and the resultant increased regulation over the product, making it a safer and wiser investment for developers.
Outlined in this article are some of the trends that we have already seen in 2019.
Increased focus on sustainability
Sustainability and environmentally friendly solutions are important drivers in all sectors in today’s world. When it comes to rainscreen cladding, clients and developers alike are seeking products that enable minimal energy usage and product wastage.
Rainwater cladding systems can offer some of the most effective solutions for enhanced moisture management and energy-efficient thermal insulation for buildings. The creation of innovative new wall panels in recent years has decreased the energy requirement for heating, ventilation, and air conditioning in many buildings, as well as increased sound insulation. The latter being perfect for busy and built up areas.
At Sotech, overall 99.5% of all materials supplied are fully recyclable. In recent years, we have been involved in numerous projects which have been awarded BREEAM excellent ratings for sustainability.
Corten
Corten rainscreen cladding is a group of steel alloys which were developed to eliminate the need for painting. The weathering steel façade naturally rusts over time, producing a striking oxide finish. The corrosion process usually takes about 18-36 month and creates a protective coating that constantly forms allowing the façade to self-heal, creating a highly durable and low maintenance option.
Corten has become a popular choice not only due to its highly durable and low maintenance option, but because of the striking and unique finish created in the corrosion process.
With corten, the steel reforms after abrasions, it has high structural strength and can be 100% recyclable.
Pre-Coat Aluminium
Pre-coat material offers the benefit to be procured in bulk and therefore offers a consistent finish per batch, minimising any potential shade variation between panels. There is a wide choice of colours available, including woodgrain, metallic, anodising effect and textured effect.
PVF2 is a custom formulated fluorocarbon solar reflective paint system designed for ultimate colour and gloss retention providing lasting outdoor performance.
Optima XPC alternative to Terracotta
Terracotta is chosen for its warm and timeless presence, it is naturally fireproof and waterproof.
The Optima XPC (extruded aluminium plank) cladding system, provides a faster, higher, stronger and more lightweight alternative to terracotta, stone and masonry cladding systems.
The system has the additional benefit of providing a complete secretly fixed extruded aluminium plank rainscreen system that has set flat face modules. Plus, due to the inherent strength of extruded aluminium, this product only needs to be 15mm thick which makes it ideal for refurbishments where space is limited due to adjacent boundary restrictions.
In the same way that terracotta can be fired in a range of colours, the aluminium can be finished in an almost infinite number of colours.
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