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ColorCote® Case Study 14 - The Waihohonu Hut...a superb new DOC hut in the Tongariro National Park, Central North Island.

It’s not just buildings in the Rotorua basin that have to contend with corrosive sulphur fumes that can eat away at exposed timber and roofing. The Department of Conservation has found that huts surrounding Mt Ruapehu are at risk of corrosion, even without a full-blown volcanic eruption from the mountain.

Numerous vents and bubbling pools on the slopes of the slumbering giant and the neighbouring Tongariro and Ngauruhoe peaks spew forth fumes that can be very toxic to many building materials. This became an important issue when a Manawatu consortium won the tender to build the new Waihohonu Hut in the Tongariro National Park. The environment where the hut is sited is known to be corrosive. It can also get extremely cold, wet and windy in the winter and very hot in the summer.

Although the tender called for standard pre-painted zinc/alloy-coated steel roofing steel and cladding, DoC officials asked the winning consortium if they could recommend a more resilient material that might better withstand the harsh environment.

Roofing Industries, Palmerston North, which was part of the consortium formed by builder Miles Hellberg of Forest Hills Construction Ltd, Feilding, knew just the solution to the corrosion issue – ColorCote® ZMX™. This robust roofing and cladding substrate produced by Pacific CoilCoaters is designed to combat corrosive environments typically found in the volcanic regions, thanks to its hot-dipped zinc/aluminium/magnesium alloy-coating that provides superior protection to the steel.
According to Roofing Industries’ Phillip Prior, upgrading from the standard metal roofing and cladding to the superior ZMX™ product did not add significantly to the budget and the extra cost will be recouped in years to come through reduced maintenance and repairs.

Selecting the right materials was the easy part of the job – delivering them to the site and constructing the new hut proved to be an interesting challenge for the consortium, as there was no vehicle access and the location was more than an hour-and-a-half walk from the nearest road.

Miles Hellberg and his roofing installer, Kenny Allison of APV Plumbing Ltd of Ashhurst, had to backpack a lot of their tools and some of the smaller products, such as flashings, whilst a helicopter ferried the main bulk of materials to the site.

The colour selections – ColorCote® Ironsand for the roof and ColorCote® Lichen for the wall cladding – also help the hut blend in with its volcanic environment and bush surroundings.

Waihohonu Hut, Tongariro National Park Photo Gallery

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