Queenstown is a town renowned for extreme sports, and construction is no exception. With winter temperatures regularly in the minus and single digits, you’d be forgiven for thinking snowboarding down the town’s famous mountains is the easier gig.
This is a challenge that Matt Lucas, owner and operator of Matthew Lucas Building, recently met during a recent project in the new Hanley’s Farm development. The team were ready to frame the roof for sheeting, but work was delayed due to the extreme cold temps that a Queenstown winter delivers. Icy rafters = stalled project. Once the weather permitted Matt and his team needed to find ways to make up for lost time, executing an efficient, top-quality job.
To achieve this, they needed to bring on board another member of the team: the Impulse FrameMaster LI™ Powervent. Lightweight (3.3kgs), with an improved battery for longer running time, a new by-pass follower for quicker nail loading, it was an obvious choice to get the job done in Queenstown’s unpredictable climate.
Like any job, safety is key for Matt and his team. This site had edge protection and fall through netting installed to ensure the safety of the team while working at heights, with the added confidence of working across purlins at 600 centres. With site safety covered, using appropriate tools for the job conditions is also important. FrameMaster LI™ is not only lighter than other guns on the market, it comes with improved rubberised grip, ideal for better handling when working at heights.
Says Matt: “We gave the battery-only tools a crack and they didn’t really hold up to what we were after.”
“It was good to have the reliability of the [FrameMaster] guns to get the job done. We sunk probably 10,000 nails into the frames and no issues; it all played out well.”
With the frame nearing completion, the team will use the Impulse 2022 16 Gauge Angle Bradder to wrap up the job with a quality finish.
Paslode tools aren’t new to Matt and his team, who regularly rely on them for framing projects both in Queenstown and in Sydney, Australia, where the company was first established. “Like all our builds we use Paslode on about 90 percent of the framework,” explains Matt, “[on] all our fixings and external corners and everything, held together with Paslode nails.”
With the job done and The Remarkables in close range, a few days on the slopes seems like the obvious way to unwind post-job. Ordinarily, Matt and the boys would do just that, but after the extreme cold of a Queenstown winter, they have their sights a little further afield. “After a brutal winter working in the cold, we always shout ourselves to a little surf trip in Mexico.”
Discover the Impulse FrameMaster-LI ™ PowerVent here.
