The two-story LivingHomes show house, designed by KieranTimberlake on the floor of this year’s Builders’ Show (top and middle), features panels in wood grain, medium brown, and light green. A private home in Aspen, Colorado, showcases EcoClad panels in black alongside real cedar shingles (above).

Photo © LivingHomes (top and middle)

Recycled paper—based exterior siding material has a strong debut despite economy

Attendees at this year’s Builders’ Show in Las Vegas and TED Conference in Long Beach, California, got a first look at EcoClad, the industry’s newest green siding offering. The material was chosen by prefab developer LivingHomes for its show house designed by the Philadelphia-based architecture firm KieranTimberlake.

Four and a half years in development, EcoClad exterior siding is the latest introduction from Klip Bio Technologies (known as Klip Tech), a Washington State—based manufacturer of sustainable materials for countertops, tabletops, flooring, and specialty surfacing.

Klip Tech first entered the surfacing market with RampX, a skateboard ramp surfacing made from recycled paper and water-based resin. Soon after, the company developed PaperStone, a recycled-paper countertop product that was sold in 2007.

Klip Tech president Joel Klippert wanted to create a sustainable exterior cladding for residential and commercial applications that would be competitive with European rain-screen systems. EcoClad is made from a fifty-fifty blend of FSC-certified postconsumer recycled office paper and wood fiber, and plantation-grown bamboo fiber, bound together by a 100 percent water-based copolymer resin. VOC- and benzene-free, EcoClad can contribute to seven different LEED credits.

A long R&D process was needed to get the product’s UV-resistance proven and tested, says Klippert. Offered in 4' x 8' panels, the siding comes with a 10-year warranty, is Class-A fire rated, and is offered in 10 stock wood grains, five stock matte colors, and custom colors.

According to LivingHomes’ project architect Amy Sims, the material is dense and cuts well, but “you get a sharp angle, so you have to sand that edge to give it a slight radius.” She adds that since Klip-Tech sells the panels and not a complete rain-screen system, specifiers have more flexibility with how to use the product.

Manufactured entirely in the U.S. in Tacoma; Scranton, Pennsylvania; and Madison, Wisconsin, EcoClad is offered at a price point ranging from $9 to $19 per square foot, which appeals to architects pricing products from abroad, says Klippert. The current economic slowdown has also given professionals more time to research new materials, he adds, “helping us to get people to stop, look, and listen to our product.”

“Although we didn’t intend to be more cost-competitive than the European products,” Klippert notes, “that’s what we have turned out to be.” Klip Bio Technologies, Payallup, Wash. www.kliptech.com

[Reader Service: April 2009 #210]

Smarter facade
At last year’s Greenbuild show in Boston, Kawneer displayed an advanced facade that integrated the manufacturer’s energy-efficient 7500 Wall, thermally broken 512 Ventrow ventilator, and a modified version of the 1600 sunshade and InLighten light shelf, along with Mechoshade’s motorized shading system and light shelf louver, Viracon’s VE1-2M triple insulating glass, and Suntech’s See Thru solar panel. Kawneer, Norcross, Ga. www.kawneer.com

[Reader Service: April 2009 #211]