“If you have an aluminium system you would like to specify through any cladding company, any louvre company, or any panel company and you’d like it coated with Metwood, chances are that supplier is already a client of ours.”

Metwood is a sublimated finish that enables Powder Coating Group to make aluminium profiles look like natural wood. Stuart says the business has been steadily improving Metwood’s credentials and its reach into the New Zealand building market over the last few years. “Our clients expressed to us that they were very satisfied with the 25-year warranty on the underlying powder coating and that they’d like similar assurances on the Metwood finish. We went back to our supplier in Italy, and they were able to provide a 10-year warranty on the majority of our patterns. This gives our clients added assurance that the product and the finish are going to last.”

The product has also been BRANZ-certified with a Class A external and Group Number 1 S internal fire rating, Stuart says. “Essentially, because Metwood is a thin coating, it won’t alter the fire rating performance of an aluminium system while still allowing you to bring a wooden look to the boundary line, at height, or into an internal fitout. When you are making a wood-finish product and competing with wooden products, fire rating becomes an important question that people often ask. Our clients can now use Metwood with increased confidence and achieve a wooden look in places where they might otherwise have some fire rating challenges.”

Stuart is excited to see Powder Coating Group’s products - Metwood, in particular - gaining traction in the market. He hopes to see the New Zealand building industry’s knowledge and use of them continue to grow. “It’s important for us to demonstrate all the benefits of our products: powder-coated aluminium is low-maintenance; aluminium is infinitely recyclable; it doesn’t warp or twist, meaning that you have certainty around how it will look over time; Metwood is a flexible product that can be applied to profiles up to 7.2m long and also flat panels; and our Metwood sublimation process is 300x more scratch-resistant than standard powder coatings on the market, making it much more durable.”

Powder Coating Group has also been making some important improvements to its production processes, Stuart says. “Metwood involves a two-stage process where we first powder coat the aluminium profile and then, through a sublimation process, embed the Metwood finish into the powder coating. But before we can do either, we have to pre-treat the raw aluminium. This has historically been done with a chromate conversion coating that is both highly toxic and non-biodegradable. This year, we were excited to be the first New Zealand job shop powder coater to go chromate-free. We now use an environmentally friendly pre-treatment product alternative that is derived from naturally occurring products. As part of this process, we installed new tanks with auto-dosing and a new auto-gantry to really improve the consistency of our pre-treatment process. These upgrades position our products as the highest quality and most environmentally friendly in the New Zealand market.”

New Zealand is taking notice, Stuart says, with huge traction from architects and specifiers working on a range of projects and typologies. “You’ll now see our products in commercial, educational, retail, residential, townhouse development, and, quite extensively, in retirement village projects. Because that sector develops, owns and maintains their facilities for the long term, they are choosing to finish at least a portion of their spaces with aluminium and at least a portion of those spaces with Metwood.”

The attraction, in part, is the easy maintenance offered by Metwood. “The market has recognised aluminium as a long-term product that’s easy to maintain. You can simply wash it down, versus some other products where you’ll have to get the scaffolding out, take your batten off, restain it, and reinstall it. Because of this, Metwood offers quite significant cost savings over time.

“Think about building components like soffits, which don’t get any sun exposure because they face down. This means that they tend to collect moisture and deteriorate as a result, requiring regular maintenance or replacement. If you use aluminium instead, you don’t have that problem, and with a Metwood finish, you can soften the look and make soffits a feature of the property.”

Metwood is now proudly on display in a number of projects throughout New Zealand, including the upcoming Mount Eden City Rail Link station, Orion Point Metlifecare Retirement Village, Cordis Hotel, many residential developments, and the 6-Green-star-certified Fidelity Life House. “The Fidelity Life House build is a great example of work we’d love to do more of,” Stuart says. “Its interior has been fitted with an aluminium batten with a pale manuka finish. This is a great way to use Metwood in a space with significant fire requirements.”

With their exterior market now well-established, Stuart is excited to see Metwood implemented in more internal fit-out projects like Fidelity Life House. “We will continue growing our work with external cladding, battens, soffits, louvres and other exterior elements. With the support of our recent BRANZ fire rating certification, we are excited to see our internal fit-out market growing as well.”

To learn more about Powder Coating and Metwood, visit https://www.metwood.co.nz/