“We work with industry professionals to create spaces that significantly outperform the requirements of the building code,” says Enveloped Director Murray Durbin. “I’ve been involved in the building and construction industry for almost 30 years. During that time, I got involved in high-performance construction, the likes of Certified Passive Houses and Homestar-rated homes.
After building my own Passive House-certified home for my family, I realised I wanted to create a business to help others do the same.”
About 12 years ago, Murray’s family home became one of New Zealand’s first Passive House-certified homes, and the first to be dually recognised as both Passive House-certified and 10-Star Homestar-rated. “Through that build, I realised that we could live in something healthier and more efficient, and I wanted to bring that opportunity to other New Zealanders as well. We had a surplus of energy, so our power bill over a year was actually negative, and the home stayed above 18 degrees without heating.” From there, Enveloped was born; for the last five years, Murray and his team have provided a range of high-performance building solutions to the New Zealand market.
Enveloped’s goal, Murray says, is to create spaces that are both healthier and more energy efficient. They are working towards this by bringing homeowners, builders and designers together.
“Enveloped is fundamentally a material supplier, but we also have deep knowledge to support our products. By bringing all the parties to the table early, we can provide insights from design specification and implementation right through to the homeowners’ ongoing interaction with their spaces.
Ultimately, the health and well-being of occupants is what inspires me. There are some shocking statistics about the quality of New Zealand’s housing stock. Something like 50 per cent of our homes show visible mould and thousands of New Zealanders die prematurely every year due to respiratory illnesses that have been potentially exacerbated by poor housing stock.”
With a newly streamlined product range, Murray says that Enveloped’s focus for 2024 will be primarily on window joinery and a range of insulation solutions. “We started with quite a wide range of products initially but quickly found that these two categories were the ones that were working the best for us, and we could add real value. We’re excited to really focus our delivery in these two areas this year.”
As the country’s exclusive representative for German window supplier Neuffer, Enveloped is bringing exceptional quality and performance to the New Zealand market, Murray says. “We’ve been supplying Neuffer products since we launched; when they were recently bought out by IFN, a multi-billion dollar European supplier based in Austria, we gained access to an even larger range of phenomenal window and door products throughout Europe. These are typically two to three times the thermal performance of what is being produced domestically, and they perform exceptionally well with regard to acoustics and airtightness.
There is an option for every project, from entry-level, super cost-effective uPVC, to wood aluminium composite, right through to premium aluminium joinery with substantial thermal breaks.” The goal, Murray says, is to work with each client’s budget and performance requirements to choose the best product for their project. Enveloped is also able to mix and match products within a build to ensure that clients are getting the best results for their site and budget.
On the insulation side of the business, Enveloped’s own Eliment insulation is made with up to 80% recycled glass and boasts an impressive 70-year warranty. “This is manufactured for us in Malaysia to our specifications and is CodeMark-certified and EECA-approved for Healthy Homes standards. It is probably the most cost-effective insulation on the New Zealand market and growing rapidly.”
Enveloped also imports and distributes other insulation products directly from overseas factories such as PUR, PIR sheet and official Rockwool products. Murray says that, by planning ahead and streamlining the supply chain, Enveloped can often offer good savings for projects.
Murray continues to support the Passive House projects that first inspired him to launch the business; he says that Enveloped typically supplies two or three Passive House projects at any one time.
“We recently completed a project in Howick known as ‘The Burrow’ which is now in the process of becoming Passive House-certified. This 660sqm high-performance home includes an enormous range of Enveloped products, in particular wood and aluminium composite, triple-glazed windows as well as uPVC joinery for their indoor swimming pool windows to combat the highly corrosive nature of that space. That’s just one example of how we can mix and match products to create a customised solution.
The owners have just moved in and can expect their energy usage to be about 10% of a standard New Zealand home. Now, we want to make these advanced products available for all projects in New Zealand”
The Enveloped team is busy working on a wide range of projects for 2024 including a high-performance home in Birkenhead. “This is our first project in New Zealand to use HiFinity thermally broken sliding doors. These virtually frameless sliders are mostly glass and just incredible.” These sliders, and the full product range, can be viewed in person at Enveloped’s Silverdale showroom. “We get people flying from all over New Zealand to visit us here, often even bringing their builder and designer along with them. There’s really nothing else in the country like it. We encourage industry professionals to come and explore our enormous range of European windows, and interact with the European technology.”
To learn more and connect with Murray and the team, visit https://enveloped.co.nz/, call 021 599 652, or visit their showroom at 150 Foundry Road in Silverdale, Auckland.
