Dulux and Friends Help Out With a Big Paint Job

Work on the viewing platform at the top of the CUE Haven property is progressing.  The top and sides of the viewing platform pavilion will be covered with an cladding made up of a lattice of angled boards to reflect the Maori weaving pattern in the traditional colours of red and black.

Dulux, a major manufacturer and supplier of paints and coatings in New Zealand, generously offered to donate the paint for the project.   And also the possibility of Dulux staff help out with the painting.

In December 2019 a Dulux consultant visited us at CUE Haven to see the building site and review the plans to determine the best paint system for the platform. The most appropriate paint was Dulux Timbacryl and the colours we selected were Cherrywood for red and Ironsand for black.

In February, two teams from Dulux came out to start the painting work.  They were assisted by two of our community volunteers and managed to paint all of the boards the builder, Kevin, had cut at the time!

Each board is between 1.2 and 1.5 meters long.  From early on, it was clear that it would not be practical to paint the boards once they are installed, but painting over 440 loose boards with three coats of paint also presented some big challenges.

The first challenge was to figure out where we would do the work.  Because we were doing two different colours and each colour required three coats we needed a large protected area.  We cleared up the CUE Haven nursery and installed some temporary supporting timbers that we could use to support the boards.

The boards had been cut to size by Kevin and stacked in the car park.  We moved them into the nursery for the first painting day.

On Monday, the first Dulux team arrived bright and early and included Daisy, Evander and Raylene.

Also joining us for the day was our good friend and regular volunteer, Alan.

We had a quick morning tea and went straight to work.  The plan was do the black boards first.

It was amazing accomplishment for the small team. Thanks!!

At the end of the day, there were only a few boards that still needed a second and third coat of the black paint.  Thomas and Mahrukh did a second coat on the remaining boards that evening.

The next day, the plan was to complete the third coat of black paint on the remaining boards and then paint as many of the red boards as possible.

The Dulux team arrived before 8 am and included Dean, George, Kevin, Phillip, Sergio and Shontelle.

Also joining us was our community volunteer, Grace.

We started with a quick morning tea to get acquainted and went right to work.

The first task was to make room in the nursery.  The black boards which had gotten three coats were sufficiently dry to take up to the building site. Some members of the team loaded up the dry boards into the ute and helped unload them up at the site.

We then brought in the boards to be painted and stacked them in the open spaces.

Meanwhile the others completed putting a third coat of black paint on the few remaining boards.

And then the whole team went to work, putting on the three coats of red paint on the other boards.

Even though it was hotter than the previous day, the group kept smiling and carried on past their planned leaving time until they got the third coat on all of the remaining boards.

It was an amazing effort that far exceeded our expectations and we are truly grateful to Dulux and all of our volunteers.

The Dulux teams painted the majority of the boards but for a variety of reasons, not all of the timber was available for painting at the time the Dulux teams were out.  As result, we had more painting to do.

Some of the boards were painted last week by Thomas and Mahrukh’s cousins Pearl and Khushru who were visiting from Toronto.

In addition to the 1.5 m boards they also had to paint the 4.5 meter roof beams.

The remaining boards will be painted by other volunteers once Kevin cuts the timber to size.

We want to thank Dulux for their very generous sponsorship and supporting the CUE Haven viewing platform project..

And a special thank you to Unitec School of Architecture lecturer, Yusef Patel, and Dulux National Distribution Manager, Alison Stankovich, for their assistance with getting the sponsorship for this project.

Also a big thank you to National Trade Sales and Marketing Manager, Shontelle Croswell, for handing all the logistics and arrangements both for the sponsorship and the volunteer days.

Our many thanks to Evander, store manager of the Dulux Helensville store who mixed up the paint and delivered it along with the brushes, rollers and supplies.

Plus a huge thank you to all the Dulux staff and Alan and Grace who braved hot weather and no wind and who managed to do such a fantastic painting job.

And finally many thanks to Pearl and Khushru for giving up half a day of their short vacation in NZ to help out with the painting and some other maintenance work!

We really enjoyed working with all of you and so appreciate your hard work and help. You have all made a major contribution to the viewing platform project and we very much look forward to seeing you back at CUE Haven to see the finished platform.

Thank You!! Thank You!!