Northern Rivers
Pro Clima Supplier Northern Rivers
Our Home Base at Pearces Creek
We are based at Pearces Creek, between Ballina and Lismore. It is where the business started, where most of our stock sits, and where both directors live.
That matters more than it sounds. When a builder in Alstonville has a problem with a detail, or a store in Byron runs out of something on a Thursday, we are twenty minutes away rather than a freight consignment and a phone queue.
Northern Rivers stockists generally get next business day delivery, and often same day if it is urgent and we are already going that way.
Where It Started
Before we distributed Pro Clima, we built with it.
Stewart and Cameron are licensed builders and both hold Passive House trade certification. The project that changed the business was a certified Passive House at Ballina, near the Richmond River, on a heptagonal block at the end of a cul-de-sac. It was one of the first certified Passive Houses in the Northern Rivers.
It tested at 0.1 air changes per hour at 50 pascals. The wall and roof assembly is timber frame with bulk insulation, structural OSB-3, an adhesive airtight barrier, then continuous woodfibre insulation and a ventilated cavity. According to the Passive House Institute’s project documentation, it was the first residential building in Australia built that way.
In March 2022 the region flooded. The building came through it.
Building in a Subtropical Climate
The Northern Rivers is ABCB climate zone 2. Humid subtropical, high summer rainfall, and a vapour drive that runs inward for much of the year rather than outward.
Most condensation guidance written for Australia assumes the southern situation: warm humid interior, cool dry exterior, moisture moving outward through the wall. Here it is frequently the reverse. Hot humid outside, air conditioned inside, moisture pushing in toward the plasterboard.
What follows from that:
An internal vapour barrier can do harm rather than good, trapping inward-driven moisture against the back of the lining.
Ventilated cavities behind cladding earn their cost quickly, both for drying and for the wind-driven rain that comes with a subtropical summer.
Mould is the failure mode, and it shows up in the wall cavity years before anyone sees it on a surface.
Anyone who has pulled apart a ten year old wall in this region has seen what gets it wrong.
Condensation management in climate zone 2
Northern Rivers Stockists
Training in the Northern Rivers
We run training days across the region for builders, carpenters and designers.
A recent session at Bangalow A&I Hall ran twice in one day, morning and afternoon. An hour of theory with Pro Clima’s technical engineer covering building science and condensation, then an hour of hands-on WRB installation with Stewart.
We also run product training for retail staff at stockist stores, and go out to sites when a crew wants the detailing shown before a job starts.
Questions
Which towns do you cover?
Ballina, Byron Bay, Lismore, Bangalow, Alstonville, Mullumbimby, Casino, Evans Head, Tweed Heads and the surrounding areas.
Can I collect from Pearces Creek?
We supply stockists rather than the public. Your nearest store will have it or can order it.
How quickly can a stockist get product?
Generally next business day, often faster within the immediate region.
Do I need a vapour permeable membrane in the Northern Rivers?
Climate zone 2 is treated differently to the cooler zones under the NCC deemed-to-satisfy provisions. Condensation risk is still real here, and the design approach needs to account for inward vapour drive rather than assuming the southern pattern.
Do you supply the Tweed and Gold Coast border area?
Yes, from either Pearces Creek or Brisbane depending on which is faster.