Sunset West Apartments is one of the first large-scale commercial buildings in Wellington to use GIB Weatherline® as part of their Rigid Air Barrier  System for the façade, and is currently under construction, the Sunset West Apartments.

Construction of the Sunset West Apartments commenced in October 2019 and is due to be completed in April 2021. This project is currently in the process of being closed in and made weather-tight as the façade and glazing panels are installed. Located at 251 Victoria Street in Wellington, the Sunset West Apartments is a 7-storey apartment building featuring 64 apartments.

The main contractor for Sunset West Apartments, Aoraki Construction Ltd, was founded in April 2019 and have made Sunset West their inaugural project. Company Directors’ Chris Goldsbury and Nigel Butt have extensive construction experience and knowledge having both worked in the field for over 15 years.

Josh Smith from Design Group Stapleton Elliot is the Senior Technician on the job and was responsible for the selection of GIB Weatherline®, which he chose for several reasons. GIB Weatherline® complied with the passive fire requirements for the building and was compatible with the rest of the façade system which allowed it to be easily installed. However, the advantages were two-fold: the ability to progress the lining works during the Wellington  winter, and the easy workability of the product. Aoraki’s builders are already well-versed and experienced in working with Winstone Wallboards, so using GIB Weatherline® as the building’s exterior envelope rigid air barrier was an easy and natural progression.

The sub-contractor in charge of ordering, cutting, and installing the GIB Weatherline® is Vertbuild Ltd. Their company director Chris Theodoreau has close ties with Aoraki Construction Ltd and has worked on previous projects with them. On site, Lance Howard leads the team of Vertbuild carpenters as Façade Manager. According to Lance the GIB Weatherline® was “easy to cut, quick to install, and a bonus was that we could even install it in the rain with Wellington’s unpredictable weather. It was also great because no glue was needed as opposed to some other Rigid Air Barrier Systems.

The GIB Weatherline® sheets required no power tools to cut which saved on both time and money. Furthermore, as it was screwed on and not nailed, if any sheets needed to be adjusted or shifted then it simply needed to be unscrewed as opposed to ripping nails out.

GIB Weatherline® was also used internally as part of the service riser construction. Due to its durability in the weather we were able to construct our  risers before the roof was on and run services up them. This was hugely beneficial to the project, saving both time and money.

Coming from our Façade Manager, GIB Weatherline® was extremely easy to handle, and usability was great especially compared to other products on the market. “It looks good and works good, plus the colour brought a nice vibrant contrast to the facade whilst being constructed".