Precious Metal

Roofing specialist, Damien O'Halloran is passionate about his work. As one of the directors of leading Canberra roofing company, Hawker Roofing, Damien's experience in metal roofing and walling is second to none. So when it came to building a new family home from scratch, he wanted only the best materials. The result is a unique, modern dwelling located in the heart of Canberra.

Designed by award winning architect, Geoff Lovie, the O'Halloran house displays clean lines, contemporary thinking and an inviting atmosphere. In keeping with Damien's love of steel, the house features an impressive combination of LYSAGHT CUSTOM ORB® and LYSAGHT MINI ORB® inside and out.

"We lived here for about three or four years, and we were always planning to extend," says Damien. "But 12 months into the planning, with 11 different variations to the initial plan, we priced it and it just wasn't worth doing, it was cheaper to knock the house down and start again."

So he decided to start with a clean sheet. The house, situated in the leafy Canberra suburb of Griffith, sits on a long, narrow block of approximately 1,100 square metres. The frontage faces east, while the long boundaries of the land face north and south.

"The house is very linear in design," says Damien. "The architect designed the house to work as a corridor, you come in through the front door and you can see straight through to the rear of the house. And it's the same upstairs, you can look straight down the corridor and look through the window at the other end, the window frames the view like a picture, looking out to the hills."

The O'Halloran house features two distinct levels within the structure, providing a total of 440 square metres of living space. The ground level contains the entry hall, master bedroom and ensuite, dining room, living room, kitchen, downstairs WC, laundry and rumpus room. The upper or mezzanine level extends only over the front half of the house, situated over the entry hall, master bedroom, and dining room, leaving a void over the open plan living and kitchen area. It contains the four children's bedrooms and bathroom. Attached to the rear of the house is a garage, which leads to the back yard and pool area.

The interior of the house is simple and stylish, featuring heated tiled floors, plain white walls, and unique touches of COLORBOND® Metallic steel. As you enter from the front door, a curved, copper clad wall extends from the porch outside into the entry hall. The open plan living and kitchen area features a two storey high wall of glass on the northern side, which provides abundant natural light, and offers access to a pleasant patio area and the garden. The room's ceiling, 3.6 metres at its highest point, slopes down towards the kitchen. The ceiling is clad in 150 square metres of LYSAGHT MINI ORB® in perforated ZINCALUME® perforated steel.

"We selected this material partly for aesthetic reasons, and also because the perforations in the MINI ORB® perform well acoustically," explains Damien. "The floor is tiled, and if you've got a hard floor, and hard ceiling, you get a lot of echo and sound reverberation. The perforated LYSAGHT MINI ORB® eliminates this."

In another unusual detail, Damien has used LYSAGHT MINI ORB® in Citi® COLORBOND® Metallic steel in the bathrooms. The LYSAGHT MINI ORB® is situated behind the sink and vanity mirror of each bathroom, where it fulfills a dual purpose of splashback and attractive feature wall.

"The LYSAGHT MINI ORB® in the bathrooms looks great," says Damien. "It was mainly the idea of bringing the outside in, creating a link between the exterior and interior of the house. We've also taken some of the floor tiles, and used them in the garden and outside in the front entry way as well, so there is a bit of cross over between outside and inside."

The exterior of the house is spectacular. Nestled within landscaped gardens, it makes a striking statement in a streetscape that features some of the city's oldest and most traditional houses.

"Starting from scratch gave us the opportunity to do a whole new facade on the front of the house, with the LYSAGHT CUSTOM ORB®, LYSAGHT MINI ORB® and alucobond, having a completely metal facade rather than brick veneer," says Damien.

About 400 square metres of LYSAGHT CUSTOM ORB® in Cortex® COLORBOND® Metallic steel, and about 60 square metres of LYSAGHT MINI ORB®, in Facade® COLORBOND® Metallic steel, has been used for the house's facade. Installed horizontally, it gives the house a futuristic look, while its response to different light produces varying tones and colours on the building's surface. "We selected the LYSAGHT CUSTOM ORB® in Cortex® primarily for the look," says Damien. "As soon as we saw the new COLORBOND® Metallic steel colours we just fell in love with them."

"We installed the LYSAGHT CUSTOM ORB® horizontally rather than vertically, to avoid the house looking like a shed, or industrial application. Horizontal is definitely a more architectural look, and accentuates the linear design of the house," adds Damien.

According to Damien, the LYSAGHT CUSTOM ORB® offered a good thermal solution for the house. "The beauty of the LYSAGHT CUSTOM ORB® cladding is that it performs so well thermally," he says. "It does heat up, but it doesn't retain heat, it dissipates quite quickly. So, it might be hot to touch on a bright sunny day, but it doesn't radiate that heat back inside. And using the COLORBOND® Metallic steel also reflects a lot of heat."

"We've also got 400 square metres of LYSAGHT KLIP-LOK 406® in Shale Grey™ COLORBOND® steel on the roof, again, it's a lighter colour, which gives us good results thermally," adds Damien.

The property's immaculate landscaped garden includes a number of unusual features, including attractive retaining walls consisting of fabricated metal mesh boxes filled with pale stones and pebbles, as well as a fence along the northern boundary in perforated LYSAGHT CUSTOM ORB®, also in Cortex® COLORBOND® Metallic steel. The screen not only provides privacy, but cuts out noise between the two properties as well.

Damien explains why he chose to use LYSAGHT® products so extensively throughout his house. "A key requirement for the project was the use of low maintenance finishes, I didn't want to be painting the house every five years. The selection of these materials was also driven in part by what I do for a living, I work with these materials every day and I like the way they look."

Damien says his experience with BlueScope Lysaght on a professional basis, also contributed to his decision to use LYSAGHT® products in his own home. "At Hawker Roofing, we have a great relationship with BlueScope Lysaght. We have been dealing with them for many years and we go out of our way to use LYSAGHT® products exclusively. If a product is specified, we'll nominate the LYSAGHT® alternative. It's just BlueScope Lysaght's professional attitude across the board. The communication we have with them is second to none."