E74. James Hardie cladding with special guest Luke Cheung

In this episode of the Building Design, Prime Time Podcast, Frank and Amelia were on location at the 2024 Building Designers Association of Australia (BDAA) trade show where professionals in the industry network and liaise with building suppliers and experts in the field. 

Frank and Amelia sat down with Luke from James Hardie to explore the durability and versatility of James Hardie products claddings in design. '

The asked thought provoking questions and and gained valuable insights into their products' longevity, backed by a 25-year guarantee, and their suitability for Australian conditions, as demonstrated on iconic projects like the Busselton Jetty in WA.

Luke highlighted James Hardie’s Modern Homes Forecast, a comprehensive style guide featuring trends like “modern coastal” and “Scandi Barn” to help homeowners visualise and communicate their design preferences. He also explains how James Hardie products make retrofitting easy, transforming outdated brick homes with modern cladding, using battening for ventilation—a technique that preserves structure and allows cladding to breathe.

The episode also delved into specifics of the James Hardie product range and the samples that are available, allowing homeowners to touch and feel textures before committing to a design.

The episode wraps up with practical tips on where to find the best inspiration, from designers all across Australia.

This conversation is a must-listen for homeowners and builders looking to explore high-quality, enduring design solutions during the design process! Be sure to subscribe on Spotify so you don't miss an episode!
 

About us
Prime Design is a building design company locally owned and operated in Tasmania since 2004.  Our goal is to share as much valuable information as possible about the process of building design, extensions, and more. We will talk about a different topic each week. To suggest a topic you would like us to talk about contact us at info@primedesigntas.com.au

Disclaimer
The information provided on this podcast is for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended to be a substitute for professional advice, individual circumstances, or remedy. We strongly suggest you consult a qualified professional before taking any action based on the information provided in this podcast. The views, opinions, and information provided in this podcast are those of the hosts do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any other agency, organisation, employer, or company. All content provided on this podcast is provided “as is” without warranty of any kind. We make no representations as to the accuracy, completeness, currentness, suitability, or validity of any information on this podcast and will not be liable for any errors, omissions, or delays in this information or any losses, or damages arising from its use. We reserve the right to change content or delete any information provided on this podcast at any time without prior notice.

Transcript

E74. James Hardie Cladding with Special Guest Luke Cheng

[INTRO] (0:08 - 0:24)

Hello and welcome to the Building Design Prime Time Podcast, focused on providing valuable information for anyone looking to undertake a new build or extension project. We'll share our tips, tricks and stories from a building designers perspective.

[Amelia] (0:26 - 0:43)

Hello and welcome to the Building Design, Prime Time Podcast. I'm your host Amelia and once again we're joined by Frank Geskus.

[Frank] (0:43 - 0:44)

Hey Amelia, how are we?

[Amelia] (0:45 - 0:48)

Oh look, it's a ripper today, we've got a bit of a different location.

[Frank](0:49 - 1:59)

We're in Hobart at Wrestpoint Casino. We're at the BDAA conference and we're on trade night tonight, which is pretty exciting. All the tradies, all the products being shown and we've got a special guest with us today, Luke.

[Luke]

Thanks for having me. 

[Frank]

So we're looking at all the awesome products you have. Luke from James Hardie. 

[Luke]

We do have quite a few products. You've got a lot of products. So what's your most popular product at the moment?

[Frank]

Because everyone will be familiar with James Hardie, some may well be familiar with the Scyon and all the other derivatives. So what seems to be your most popular products? 

[Luke]

So over the last few years, we have launched a lot of new product innovation and what is really popular at the moment is that vertical trend look.

[Frank]

Axon panel?

[Luke]

Axon, but the one that's really taking off at the moment is oblique, oblique cladding. It's got a vertical groove in it and you can install it horizontally as well, but people really like that sort of that vertical look.

And it sort of competes against, you know, standing seam. But for a builder or a homeowner, it's much more economical and faster to put up, but it still has that fantastic look.

[Amelia] (1:59 - 2:01)

Nice feature, isn't it? Very popular.

[Frank] (2:01 - 2:43)

Yeah, it's very cool. And it's got, yeah, that groove is a lot more pronounced. 

[Luke]

That's right, yeah.

[Frank]

Is there any new innovations? 

[Luke]

Yeah, so over the last few years, probably we have launched a lot more sort of textured panels. 
 
 

[Frank]

Yes.

[Luke]

So whether that be Hardy Fine Texture cladding or Hardy Brush Concrete cladding, we have, I guess, yeah, now in our collection of products, more textures. And, you know, if you were back in the day, if you had blue board and you were rendering over the top, we now have a much better solution, which is Hardy Fine Texture cladding, which has got the texture built, embedded into the board. 

[Frank]

So the coating's a lot easier to do now?

Well, you don't have to do the coating anymore.

[Amelia] (2:43 - 2:44)

Oh, wow.

[Luke] (2:44 - 3:05)

The coating is embedded in the board, so, you know, it's durable, you know, it doesn't crack. So the design of the board, it's a shiplap joint. So for a homeowner who's, you know, building a house and, you know, they might have kids that, you know, are kicking a football against the wall, you know, it's not going to get those cracks that are…

[Frank]

Yeah, like the old ones, because they had that brittle render finish on them.

[Luke] (3:05 - 3:05)

That's right.

[Frank] (3:05 - 3:10)

Yeah. Okay, that's a great idea. And you mentioned another finish, it's a concrete…

Brushed Concrete.

[Frank] (3:10 - 3:11)

Brushed concrete.

[Luke] (3:11 - 3:40)

So a little bit similar to Fine Texture, but just a bit of a different sort of texture. So it's a bit like a brush, brush sort of concrete. 

[Frank]

Okay. It's just a normal exterior grade paint. 

[Luke]

Yeah, so one of the great things with James Hardie products is that you can paint it any colour you want. 

[Frank]

Yeah.

[Luke]

So it comes pre-primed, so that saves time for the homeowner. No, they don't need to put too many coats on, just a couple of licks of paint. And if you don't like the colour…You can paint it again. 

[Frank]

Well, nice and easy, isn't it? 

[Luke]

Nice and easy.

[Amelia] (3:40 - 3:42)

Barbie Pink for you for your next house, Frank.

[Frank] (3:42 - 3:42)

What?

[Amelia] (3:43 - 3:43)

Yeah.

[Frank] (3:44 - 3:44)

No.

[Amelia] (3:44 - 3:45)

Yeah.

[Frank] (3:45 - 3:45)

No, not happening.

[Amelia] (3:46 - 3:48)

I thought I'd give it a shot.

[Frank] (3:48 - 3:52)

No, you can do your new… Wait, we haven't designed your new house yet.

[Amelia] (3:52 - 3:53)

That's very true.

[Frank] (3:53 - 4:02)

So you guys have been supplying to the Australian market for what? It'd have to be, what, 100 years? 

[Luke]

Over 130 years now.

[Frank]

A long time. It's amazing.

[Amelia] (4:02 - 4:03)

Wow.

[Frank] (4:03 - 5:01)

It's part of the Australian, you know, building culture. 

[Luke]

It is, it is. We're known as Hardie’s, you know, in the industry. And, you know, you can see us on the block these days. We're here tonight. You know, we…

[Frank]

You guys are a big supporter of the BDAA. 

We are. Yeah, we are principal sponsors. 

[Frank]

Yes. 

[Luke]

And, you know, we're glad to be here to talk to the A&D community tonight.

[Frank]

Yeah, brilliant. Where do you think the future's going with claddings? Because you guys keep coming out with more and more options. And I suppose you see how the market goes. Because it takes a long time to develop new products. 

[Luke]
Yeah, you know, products don't just happen overnight. They take years and years of, I guess, research and development and… And independent testing. That's right.

So over the last few years, I guess, we have ramped up our innovation pipeline. I guess where we're sort of seeing, you know… Well, I guess if you just look at the market, you know, there's labour shortages at the moment.

So people want homes quicker. So, you know, I wouldn't be surprised if prefab and that sort of style building…

[Amelia] (5:01 - 5:02)

Modular type homes.

[Luke] (5:02 - 7:39)

Modular type homes becomes sort of more and more sort of popular. 

[Frank]

Well, definitely, especially when you're going, you know, more densely built up areas, what I call keyhole construction. Because you just can't have all the trades in.

[Luke]

No, you can't. 

[Frank]

Bring in, you know, modular pieces of building and click it together. 

[Luke]

Yep. And I think also with, you know, the federal government wanting to build, what is it, 1.2 million homes or something like that? 

[Frank]

They've set a pretty mean benchmark. 

[Luke]

Pretty mean benchmark. I think that, you know, building in, you know, built up areas, people are going to be wanting to build more duplex sort of style homes. So, you know, you've got smaller lot sizes and, you know, you need to find products that can support to maximise that space. 

[Frank]

And it's got to be quality. And quality, absolutely. You know, it's got to be absolute quality, because we want these buildings to be here for a long time, and also got to be well-designed as well. That, yeah, 50, 60, 100 years, it's still there and hasn't disintegrated.

[Luke]

Absolutely. And I guess with, you know, there's floods and there's fires, you know, the… 

[Frank]

Yeah, bushfire has been a big thing, hasn't it?

[Luke]

Yeah. 

[Frank]

You guys have done all your testing, your products to, you know, because you're up to, you can go up to BAL 40. 

[Luke]

That's correct, yeah.

[Frank]

That's pretty important in a lot of parts of Australia. In Tasmania, we're not allowed to build up to BAL 40. 

[Luke]

Okay.

[Frank]

Only BAL 29. But the rest of the country, you can go to that and the flame zone. But every state you'd find, every state's slightly different.

[Luke]

It is slightly different. 

[Frank]

Different habits. Yes. You know, different habits from builders and designers as well. So, where do you think it's heading in so far as the products that you guys do? Got any secrets?

[Luke]

I'd have to kill you. No. No, look, I don't get access to that type of detail. But I guess all of our products, we look to help, I guess, the homeowner, but also the builder to be able to put it up quicker, faster, more efficient. You know, we try to manufacture and design products that create, I guess, better efficiencies for everybody. So…

[Frank]

But also with the products you're doing, you're allowing building designers and architects to get more creative as well. Absolutely. So, all of our products can be almost, it's like a Meccano set. So, we've got all the joints and junctions. So, you know, with the James Hardie product portfolio, you can design endless design possibilities with all of our boards, weatherboards, sheets. 

[Frank]

Not just exterior.

[Luke]

And not just exterior. So, we are seeing a lot of our products being used as feature walls inside. We do obviously have, you know, internal products as well, but a lot of our exterior products are being brought inside to create that indoor-outdoor living.

[Frank]

We've done that a few times. You know, if you bring it inside, especially alfresco areas, it's really cool how to do it in there as well. So, yeah.

[Amelia] (7:39 - 7:40)

Do you have a favourite product, Luke?

[Luke] (7:41 - 8:12)

Oh, look, I would say one of my favourite products is the Linear Weatherboard. It's been around for quite a while, but just that… Classic.

[Frank]

It's a classic. It is a classic. I totally agree.I love it. I actually like the Primeline too. 

[Luke]

Primeline, yes.

[Frank]

Primeline Series. 

[Luke]

Yep. Yeah, the Primeline Series is good, but I'm a fan of Linear. The new oblique cladding, you know, if I was building a house, I'd probably actually put oblique on there. You can create a great barn sort of style look. You know, you can…It looks really great and it just looks premium, but, you know, at a third of that cost.

[Amelia] (8:13 - 8:15)

It sounds like my cup of tea.

[Frank] (8:15 - 8:21)

Yeah, it would do. 

[Amelia]

Yeah, yeah.

[Frank]

Barn style.

[Amelia]

Yeah, I like it. 

[Frank]

You love a scandi barn.

[Amelia] (8:21 - 8:24)

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Me and the rest of Australia.

[Frank] (8:24 - 8:28)

Yeah, exactly. It's the flavour of the month. And why not?

It looks great.

[Amelia] (8:28 - 8:41)

It does. It does. So, what sort of conditions are James Hardie products suited for? Like, are some, you know, specific to coastal environments? Are some specific for rural environments?

[Luke] (8:41 - 8:54)

So, the great thing about James Hardie products are they are built for the Australian conditions. So, whether it's four degrees in Hobart or whether it's 35 degrees in Cairns… 

[Frank]

It does get 35 here too.

[Luke]

Well, actually, it was 28 degrees yesterday, wasn't it?

[Frank] (8:54 - 8:56)

It was. 

[Luke]

It was, so it does get hot here.

[Frank] (8:56 - 8:57)

It wasn't raining, so happy days.

[Amelia] (8:57 - 9:01)

Anything above, you know, it's double digits is pretty good here.

[Luke] (9:02 - 9:15)

But yeah, the benefits are, you know, whatever conditions get thrown at James Hardy products, they can stand up to the test of time. You know, they're rot resistant. You know, termites can't get into them. So, you know, they've been around for 135 years.

[Amelia] (9:16 - 9:18)

I was going to say, you learn a trick or two in that amount of time.

[Frank] (9:19 - 9:45)

With your fixings, you know, stainless steel braids, you know, if you go the total system, because I do know some builders sometimes cheat a little bit on that, but you use the proper stainless braids and all the proper connections. Yeah. How long is your guarantee for other products?

[Luke]

Uh, 25 years. Gee, that's impressive. You don't get too many things that are 25 years guaranteed.

Yeah, most products 25 years. And talking about the coastal conditions, there's a famous jetty at Busselton.

[Amelia] (9:45 - 9:47)

I've done that jetty.

[Luke] (9:47 - 10:02)

Which has got your product that you just mentioned before, Primeline. So, that's been around for a really, really long time.

[Frank]

I'll specify a bit where we're doing more heritage as well. So, yeah, you can get some, yeah, nice lines with that. 

[Luke]

You can. Yeah.

[Amelia] (10:03 - 10:09)

So, if anyone wants to learn a little bit more about James Hardy products, where could they find some inspiration?

[Luke] (10:10 - 11:04)

So, the best place to go would be to either follow us on Instagram or to go to our website, jameshardie.com.au. This year, we launched our inaugural Modern Homes Forecast. So, it gives, I guess, homeowners and people who are looking to build or design an introduction into, I guess, the different modern styles of building. 

[Frank]

And that's perfect because everyone's looking for, shall I say, pretty pictures. But of people being innovative with your products and be able to go online to have a look at that. Then they come to designers like me. I like something like this. And if they can tell us where they get it from, you know, James Hardie, right, we can do that. That's easy. Well, that's the challenge these days.

People go, I want a modern home, but modern is a very broad word. 

[Frank]

Yes, don't get me started on that. 

[Luke]

So, you know, we are... 

[Frank]

It's like Hamptons. 

[Luke]

That's right.

[Amelia] (11:04 - 11:05)

Yeah, everyone wants Hamptons.

[Frank] (11:05 - 11:07)

Yeah, or Scandi Barn now.

[Amelia] (11:07 - 11:08)

Or Scandi Barn.

[Luke] (11:08 - 11:23)

So, we're investing to help homeowners, you know, get the dream home that they want. But being able to have that articulate conversation with the designer, with the builder to say, hey, I like that look. It is modern coastal or it is barn or it is Japandi.

[Amelia] (11:24 - 11:27)

Japandi, I've never heard that one before.

[Luke] (11:27 - 12:24)

And these are the products that I want to go with it. So, we're just, I guess, yeah, educating a homeowner and empowering them to be able to have those conversations. 

[Frank]

And say people see a picture, that's great. But they want to touch and feel and look at the product. How would they go about trying to find samples? 

[Luke]

Yeah, so on our website, you can order a sample. Oh, brilliant. When we launched the Modern Homes Forecast, we had sample kits for each of the seven looks. So, people could see the curated collection of the products together with recommended paint colours.

A lot of our customers, our distributors, our resellers have displays in store. They can go in and check out and see the displays, touch and feel. 

[Frank]

So, I think it's important. It's great to see a picture, but you want to touch it and feel it. 

[Luke]

Absolutely. Yeah, it's, you know, with the different textures, the different profiles, you know, you want to get your hands, you want to roll up the sleeves and actually get to see the product.

[Frank]

Yeah, especially with brushed concrete, you know. 

[Luke]

Absolutely. 

[Frank]

So, yeah, that's awesome.

[Amelia] (12:25 - 12:35)

Very cool. So, what about if you have an existing house and you want to, say, do an extension or you want to kind of clad over the top? Is that something that's possible with James Hardie?

[Luke] (12:36 - 13:20)

Absolutely. Yeah, it's possible. You can clad over brick.

You can extend, you know, there's endless design possibilities. But yes, absolutely. We're seeing a lot of homes being sort of cladded over.

You know, you have old dated brick homes and people want a modern home and it's quite easy just to batten out and render it and clad over the top. 

[Frank]

Yeah, clad over the top, change the colour, all that type of stuff. But also, you can batten it out.

[Luke]

That’s right, 

[Frank]

We'll talk about that. And this is an important point. Previously, we used to just direct fix and now we batten out to help with the ventilation.

[Luke]

Correct. 

[Frank]

So, for everyone out there, make sure your cavities are vented from your cladding. It doesn't matter where you are in the country.

Make sure it breathes. That's right.

[Amelia] (13:20 - 13:25)

All right, well, we might start wrapping up. Where can we find James Hardy on social media?

[Speaker 1] (13:26 - 13:33)

I would go to our Instagram account, so jameshardieau. Or follow somebody like Three Birds Renovations.

[Amelia] (13:34 - 13:35)

Yeah, very popular.

[Luke] (13:35 - 13:51)

They use a lot of James Hardie products on their projects. Yeah, our Instagram account would be sort of the main one, where you can get your design inspiration. You know, we share a lot of homes that are built and renovated right across the country.

All different types of looks. So, if you're looking for inspiration, I'd go there first.

[Amelia] (13:51 - 14:03)

Very good. All right, thank you so much, Luke, for coming in and chatting to us about James Hardie. We're so grateful that you've been able to set aside some time during this pretty busy night.

There's a lot of exhibitors here.

[Frank] (14:03 - 14:04)

It's gonna be busy.

[Amelia] (14:04 - 14:05)

It is.

[Luke] (14:05 - 14:08)

I'm looking forward to it. And thanks for having me. 

[Frank]

Our pleasure, mate.

[Luke]

Thanks for having me.

[Amelia] (14:08 - 14:16)

Thanks for listening to the Building Design Prime Time Podcast. We'll catch you next time. 

[Frank]

And I went over the top again. Sorry about that. 

[Amelia]

We'll catch you next time.

[OUTRO] (14:26 - 14:29)

You're listening to the Building Design, Prime Time Podcast.