Innovative pre-finished plasterboard system eliminates need for sanding, plastering and painting.

Faced with the prospect of converting an old warehouse into a modern church in the suburb of Pukekohe situated in Auckland, Project Manager Bill Kathagen, of the new ELIM Christian Centre saw an opportunity to embrace an innovative pre-finished plasterboard system that promised to address his needs.

The brief for the new church was challenging as it had to accommodate a main auditorium for 350 people and create numerous breakout rooms for various activities.
Early occupancy and functionality for the conversion was a driving consideration for the church, and facets of the conversion were assessed for prefabricated or pre-finished elements that would accelerate the project timeline and minimise on-site trades and waste.

“We wanted to achieve a very modern, sharp look,” explains Project Manager, Bill Kathagen, ELIM. “We could have used paint, but we’d heard about Climate’s pre-finished product and thought it’d be very good for our project. The main benefit for us was that the surfaces are pre-painted and pre-coloured.”

The decision was made to embrace ClimateLine and the ELIM team chose to line existing and new partition walls with pre-finished plasterboard panels with matching aluminium joiners.

For the walls of the 350-person auditorium, 10mm ClimateLine powder coated in Black matt finish with the new Slimline jointer was selected. “We went with the black so that we could easily control the artificial lighting in the auditorium,” explains Bill. With the high walls of the auditorium, installing pre-finished plasterboard simplified the construction process. “The walls are massive — 6m high and 20m long,” says Bill. “If it had just been finished with ordinary plastered joints and painted, it would have been a very big job. It would have been extremely difficult to get it as clean and tidy as this product.”

In the break-out areas, the ELIM team opted for ClimateLine powder coated in Resene Half Iron, a light off-white which helps create a sense of space in those rooms. “The walls in these spaces are still very high at 4m, so the lighter coloured walls create a nice, light airy feel,” says Bill.

Installation of the wall linings was completed by FBS. While the large panels made for a big installation job, the process was quick and simple with linings attached to lightweight steel framing. For Phill Ford, Builder, FBS, the use of Climate’s products helped simplify the job. “There’s no plastering, no sanding, no dust, no painting, no fumes,” he says. “I haven’t seen anything like that here in NZ before.” With the ELIM centre located next to a food preparation facility, the minimisation of dust was a huge benefit.

Phill adds that should any damage occur, repairs will be simple and cost-effective. “If you get a hole you don’t need a builder, a plasterer and a painter, you just take the sheet off and replace it, so that’s a real advantage.”

With the time-saving benefits and high-quality finish of ClimateLine’s pre-finished plasterboard system, both client and builder are very pleased with the final result — sleek, low-maintenance walls for the church interior. “It’s exceeded our expectations,” says Bill, “It looks fantastic and has saved us time and money in terms of plastering and painting.”

At the completion of the conversion Kyle True of ClimateLine remarked, “We enjoyed being a part of the project and were on-hand to answer any queries they had on material handling and installation.”

See: https://climatesurfaces.com/

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