An unusual application of CSR Cemintel’s BareStone

Architecturally designed cliff-top home features an unusual application of CSR Cemintel’s BareStone™

CSR Cemintel™’s external cladding solution, BareStone™ has become a hero product while unusually specified for the bathroom walls of an architecturally designed home on the south-coast in New South Wales.

Located on the stunning coast in Clifton between Sydney and Wollongong and, perched on a cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean, this contemporary modern house has what seems like a stunning 360 degree vantage and has been aptly named by the architects as ‘Cliff House’.

BareStone, part of the CeminSeal™ family of products is an ideal external cladding solution incorporating the CeminSeal waterblocking technology. Product Manager Ben Thompson says, “Generally BareStone is specified for commercial buildings such as shopping centres and office blocks, and it is fast becoming the product of choice for architects who wish to offer a point of difference to customers in residential construction.”

Yet this is where the similarities of most homes and the Cliff House end. Cemintel BareStone was used internally for the first time in wet areas such as the bathroom and toilet, excluding the shower recess.

Multi-award winning architect, Steven Isaacs, from Architecture Saville Isaacs Pty Limited, was the principle architect in the design and construction of this project and is known to push the boundaries, try new products and experiment new techniques to keep abreast of his colleagues.

A sentence from the architect’s website rings true with regards to this project; “Architecture Saville Isaacs has a pragmatic approach to construction and cost and uses these constraints to inform design rather than be hindered by it.”

The architect and client agreed that a house in this location needed raw building materials with an emphasis on quality.

Steven Isaacs comments, “Textures are very important which was why we were attracted to BareStone, it is an honest material with such a raw appeal that blended in with the glass, raw timber and the render.

“Originally we were planning to specify fibre cement with sealer but when speaking with Cemintel and after hearing the benefits of BareStone as an external wall lining, we could not pass up the opportunity to design a bathroom with such powerful natural light using a product that looked so raw, yet had waterblocking technologies and was easy to install.”

Throughout the 250 sqm house, CSR plasterboard was installed on the remainder of internal walls, whilst Cemintel Residential ExpressWall was installed as the external facade. To complement the natural BareStone look throughout the living space, raw recycled Tallowood timber was applied to the open staircase and finished with a wire brush to add a textured finish.

The flooring throughout the two storey house is CSR Cemintel’s 15mm fibre cement Compressed Sheet.

Cemintel Compressed Sheet is a water resistant, high strength, durable building product, which is suitable for all domestic wet area applications. It has a smooth flat surface and a square edge finish. It offers the benefit of having a point load rating five times higher than required for Australian standards and is covered by the CSR Internal Lining Guarantee. Construction of this eco-efficient home took 14 months to complete under the guidance of builder, Neil Riles.

Cemintel BareStone is a pre finished panel which provides an extremely weather tight, highly durable, low maintenance cladding system. BareStone panels are 9mm thick compressed, autoclaved, cellulose fibre reinforced cement sheets, purpose made for use on building facades. The BareStone panels are a square edge sheet with a smooth flat surface and a raw cement look that does not require painting.

BareStone has been tested to AS4284 and uses 1.15BMT galvanised top hats and exposed head fasteners S/S or class 3.

Mr Isaacs has been impressed with BareStone and has confirmed he will be using it in the future, his only question is, “Where and how?” He says he will continue to push Cemintel fibre cement beyond its boundaries, and will stay tuned to see how it can become the future of wall and floor cladding, both external and internal.