Hobsonville Point Primary School

The release of government owned land near the Hobsonville Airbase in Auckland’s North- West, has allowed for the development of Hobsonville Point as one of Auckland’s newest satellite communities.

Numerous projects have been approved and are in the process of being constructed, including an extensive number of residential homes, a primary and secondary school, a wharf and ferry terminal and other buildings that make up a new community.

Dimond has been involved in providing a wide range of products for the Primary school partnering with Kiwi Roofing (Installer) and Ampelite (Natural Lighting supplier).

Products included 7500 LM of roofing product (Dimondek 630 up to 47m runs), 1500 LM of customised natural lighting product, 2000 LM of cladding (Dimondek 630) as well as customised aluminium window flashings and custom gutters with brackets to suit.

The job began in June this year and is due for completion in December, Kiwi Roofing have had up to 15 staff on site at anyone time and has been a major project for them.

Paul Connell Director of Kiwi roofing noted that one of the real features of this job was the custom designed skylight systems which consisted of a multi-layered Natural lighting solution developed specifically for the use on Hobsonville Primary School. Working with ASC Architects, Hawkins Construction and Auecon mechanical engineers this ThermRline skylight system makes a great addition to the Durolite range.

The project had a very specific design requirements, as follows:

-> To provide maximum light transmission.
-> Reduce the noise coming through from rain.
-> Provide minimum thermal energy loss.

The solution was using a Durolite  sheet formed from a Dimond 3 ribbed Styleline profile, with modified side ribs to lap to the Dimondek 630. over a second layer of matching polycarbonate sheet. Light wells including further layers of flat plastic sheet were constructed below the skylight to disperse the light and minimise rain noise.

The lighting strip widths were critical to the floor plan layout to provide natural light exactly where it was needed. The top natural lighting strips run from ridge to eave and are blanked out with building paper in areas not requiring natural lighting The Natural lighting strips have been placed in each of the classrooms so that the children’s desks are exposed to maximum amount of natural light. The technical teams from Dimond, Ampelite and Kiwi joined together developing a novel solution to meet the stringent requirements of the consultants.

Other features of the job included the use of Dimondek 630 for wall cladding and the use of architecturally designed aluminium flashings as well as a unique gutter with custom made brackets, all of which has galvanised the team to forge the right solutions for the site. The secondary school job, which is twice the size of the primary school, is due to begin early next year with a similar specification to the primary school, plans are already in place to organise the required coil and machinery to get the job done. Kiwi Roofing have again been confirmed as the fixer and are keen to take advantage of the experience gained from the primary school and produce a top quality job within the required time frame.