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| The Vancouver Sun, Saturday, May 23, 1998 Barbara McQuade, Sun New Homes Reporter Santa Barbara, Polygon's new condominium project on West Fourth Avenue in Vancouver, raised more than a few eyebrows when the sales center opened recently. The California mission-style architecture and sculpted stucco-look walls of the finished building certainly strike a different design note even for eclectic Kitsilano. But what really drew attention was the adjoining building, shrouded in bright blue tarps - tarps that these days smack of leaky construction, the kiss of death for condo sales. It's not surprising that more than a few people hustled into the sales center to find out what was going on. First impressions can be more than a little misleading. The tarps, used on both buildings during the crucial stages of construction, ensured the project's new Preswitt rainscreen system was installed under optimum conditions despite the vagaries of Vancouver weather. An explanatory signboard has since been erected. The Preswitt system is described in construction lingo as a complete exterior insulation and finish system [EIF] coupled with rainscreen technology. The result is believed to provide superior protection against moisture and thermal shock. Polygon's managing director, Michael Audain, says: "We went to the Preswitt system because we felt it would best suit the architectural style, creating a stucco look without actually being stucco It's a first for us, going without an internal [vapour] barrier." Preswitt, a Langley based company, has been designing and manufacturing EIF systems for 17 years. Company president, Tom Smith says: "What we have done is take a system we have used successfully for 17 years and modified it to meet the city's rainscreen requirements." In the Preswitt system, an acrylic basecoat is applied to plywood sheathing reinforced with fiberglass mesh to seal off the exterior of the building. Polystyrene board is then adhesively attached to this weather sealed plywood in a manner that creates air space and drainage channels. Finally, an acrylic /cement reinforced basecoat is applied and finished with a coloured acrylic coating. Should any water find its way past the protective exterior finish, it has an escape route to the exterior. And since the walls are divided into compartments, if a problem should arise, it can be easily identified and addressed. Smith says, all the experts on the project, including the architects, engineer, building envelope specialists from Gordon Spratt and Associate, Polygon and Preswitt staff had input into the installation from the very beginning design stages. "This is the first time for any job I have been involved in where so many people made every effort possible to make sure that the building worked," he says. |
