Reducing Construction Time
Jan 10, 2021
We recognize and understand that COVID-19 restrictions have made things tough for the majority of the building industry, causing delays to build times and adding cost to the overall project.
There is every likelihood that we will be living under some level of restriction for some time and that current restrictions on the number of trades on site and how many sites can be worked on in any given week, may also remain in place.
So what can be done? How can you speed up the build time? How can you reduce trades on-site? How can you complete more of the build yourself, keeping you on-site longer and reducing the need to travel between multiple sites?
At Bowens, we have a range of products that can help you do exactly that:
Pre-finished Cladding
In addition to the usual offerings of James Hardie, Weathertex and timber claddings, we also offer an extensive range of pre-finished claddings, that will help speed up your build (no painting required) and reduce scaffold hire costs.
- PermaTimber CX Original & CX Castellation – high performance wood-plastic composite cladding, with a two-tone, authentic timber appearance that boasts minimal maintenance. Made from 87% recycled materials, it is UV stable, termite resistant and never needs oiling, staining or painting. Available in 3 colours: Tasmanian Oak, Spotted Gum and Ebony, which can all be quickly installed either vertically or horizontally.
- Weathertex Urban Eco – available in 3 of the most popular profiles: Primelok (200 Smooth), Selflok (150 & 300 Smooth) and High Impact Board (Smooth). The boards come pre-finished in a choice of 10 Colorbond colours. The high quality and reliable factory applied coating carries a 15-year guarantee and provides a low maintenance solution for your next renovation, extension, custom home or development project.
- Urbanline Architectural – offering a unique range of architectural prefinished claddings, the Urbanline range is available in a variety of materials including wood composites, fibre cement and aluminium.
- Euro Selekta Clad is a pre-finished HPL (high-pressure laminate) cladding façade with a beautiful timber-grain-embossed surface that ticks many boxes for fire certification. Designed for stability and longevity with style, Euro Selekta Clad is eco-friendly, low maintenance and incredibly easy to install. Available in a choice of 8 stunning colours.
- Alu Selekta is an innovative new product made from highly durable aluminium. This non-combustible cladding (AS1530.1 compliant) looks just like timber and works interchangeably with Euro Selekta profiles. Eco-friendly, low maintenance and incredibly durable, it’s ideal for high rises and bushfire rated areas. 4 striking colours to choose from.
- Cera Façade provides a striking, original style that brings your walls to life combined with maintenance-free living and durability that lasts the distance. Ceramic-coated fibre cement panels protect against the elements and provide surprisingly low maintenance for decades to come. Available in smooth finishes, rich textures and modern colours.
Structural Solutions
Getting your project out of the ground as quickly as possible is important and that’s why we offer you a range of solutions that can be customized off-site (to speed up the build on-site), reduce waste, minimize delays, reduce costly equipment hire and reduce trades by training your carpenters to complete the installs.
- Dincel Structural Walling – the original and Internationally patented PVC permanent formwork system. Made up of panels that snap into position to quickly build all types of structural walling solutions. Dincel is a superior alternative to blockwork and traditional concrete formwork, providing a waterproof and durable protective barrier when filled with ready mixed concrete. Designed for fast installation, the 200mm profile is ideal for structures up to 40 storeys in height and accommodates curved walls for residential and commercial applications.
- Spantec – the quickest and easiest sub-floor system you will ever build. Offering a range of innovative solutions, from complete cut-to-size custom designs, to individual components of BoxSpan, EziPier and EziBrace, you can be sure that Spantec will have your next subfloor covered. Perfect for custom homes, decks and commercial projects, Spantec is the ideal solution for sloping sites, bushfire zones, flood zones and termite prone areas. The high load capacities and long spans can dramatically reduce the number of piers required, meaning less concrete and faster installs.
- Simpson Strong-Tie – is one of the largest suppliers of structural building products in the world, including timber connectors, fasteners, fastening systems, anchors and lateral-force resisting systems. Bowens is proud to team up with SST to supply numerous innovative solutions to our customers, that are improving the way they build.
- Quik Drive® Auto-Feed Screw Driving System – maximise your fastening efficiency on a broad range of applications: flooring, decking, cladding, roofing and steel frames (including Spantec) and much more. This tool enables you to improve the quality and speed of your work while reducing wastage and money spent on the job.
- CCN64 Collated Connector Nailer – helps to ensure the correct installation of connectors through its unique design and is considerably faster than traditional hand nailing. The CCN64 has been designed so that connector nails protrude from the tip of the tool. This allows the user to easily locate the tip of the nail into the connector hole so that the connector will not be damaged. The nails are hammered into the timber via multiple blows which prevent the nail from being overdriven.
- Quik Stik™ – installation tool provides a versatile solution that makes fastening rafter and truss connections fast, safe and easy. Quik Stik™and Strong-Drive® SDWC Truss screws are designed to work together for a safe, reliable solution.
- Strong-Wall®Site-Built Portal Frame System (PFS) provides designers, builders and contractors with an easy way to achieve wall-bracing requirements with narrow wall widths. Simple and quick to install, the PFS is a cost-effective alternative to steel braced-wall solutions.
- The 240 mm or 300 mm nominal column sizes allow builders to maintain narrow return walls at garage openings and allow designers to maximize portal openings in standard wall framing, such as for large windows or sliding glass doors.
- Saves time for the installer and increases the confidence of the specifier that it will be installed properly.
- Site-built portal frames are less expensive than steel or moment frame
Waterproofing Solutions
Moisture management is one of the biggest challenges on the building site and you need the confidence to know that what you are using is tried and tested. That’s why we are proud to partner with global brands, that have been proven in the market for decades around the world.
- wedi Waterproof Shower Systems – offer reliable, cost-efficient solutions for constructing 100 % waterproof and mould proof showers. These systems are easy to install and open up a whole new world of design possibilities for showers, wet areas and baths. wedi shower systems blend the traditional values of design flexibility and robustness while offering the added benefits that come with state of the art material and manufacturing technologies.
Used in combination with wedi Building Panels on walls, the shower bases offer an excellent alternative to traditional installation methods. No more pre-sloping, pan liner cracks or membrane pinholes, clogged drain weep holes and mould growth. Plus, reduce the traditional installation time and downtimes for a full shower floor preparation for tiling, from 2 – 3 days to now 30 minutes.
wedi Waterproof Shower System is fully CodeMark certified and builders can become certified installers through a joint initiative with Bowens. Once certified, trades are covered by the wedi warranty & insurance.
- Drizoro Construction Products have a wide range of high-performance products suitable for waterproofing and protection of concrete and masonry. Drizoro provides waterproofing mortars for positive and negative hydrostatic pressure conditions, flexible waterproof coatings, cement-based waterproofing mortars with osmotic behaviour and fast setting hydraulic mortars for control of running water leaks.
One of the many benefits of these products is that they must be applied to a wet surface, which means fewer delays and costs in trying to dry the substrate that requires waterproofing. Many of the products are also designed to be applied from the negative side, which will also save time and money compared to traditional waterproofing practices that would require additional excavation to be able to apply the product from the positive side – making Drizoro the perfect solution for repairing leaking basements and retaining walls.
