Caloundra Surf Club Refurbishment Splendour

Metropolitan Caloundra Surf Life Saving Club has a proud history dating back to 1933.

Like most Surf Life Saving Clubs they are a key component of the beach community and enjoy enormous support but are always striving for additional funds to help finance their life saving efforts. The main fund raising arm of the SLSC is the supporters club now known as Mets on Kings. The club offers a restaurant, bar and other facilities and is located in a building at one end of the beautiful Kings Beach. Unfortunately like many buildings that are perched so close to the ocean, this facility was looking tired and worn so a renovation was desperately needed but funding both a renovation and the ongoing surf lifesaving effort was a double challenge for the club!

Getting value for money is normally a key criteria for any building project but all the more so when you are a community fund raising club. This fact combined with the need to enhance an already iconic community facility and source materials that would be both cost effective and withstand the harsh ocean front conditions that the building faced became a significant challenge. Former president of the supporters club Craig Spender was given this task and he first contacted Futurewood some 4 years ago after using Futurewood CleverDeck wood plastic composite decking at his own home.

Craig was very happy with the Futurewood product that he had used on his own project but he was determined to search high and low for the best possible product so he gathered various product samples from many different suppliers and put them through a weather test on his own deck. Craig then determined that the Futurewood’s wood plastic composite decking and cladding was the best of the bunch and was thus put forward for the decorative cladding component of the refurbishment as well as being earmarked for the proposed deck.

Next came the task of getting all of the stake holders to agree on the plans and sign off on the project and this took some time and patience but eventually stage one of the project was confirmed and funded and work began in late 2015. Stage 1 was completed in October 2015 and as you can see from the before and after photos the renovation has completely transformed the club.

Craig has commented that throughout the project Futurewood were very easy to deal with and the feedback from club members and the general public alike is that the new club looks fantastic. The chosen cladding is a combination of Futurewood EnviroSlat 70mm x 15mm slats and 40mm x 30mm slats finished in the Saltbush (Colour no longer available. Replaced with Weatherstone) colour. What makes this even more attractive to Craig is that the chosen Futurewood cladding material is low maintenance and will not require the additional time and valuable club funds to support the annual recoating that the previous timber façade required.

In order to get stage 2 of the project off the ground (literally) the “Members Deck” stage of the project was crowd funded through an ingenious project called the “Buy a Board” campaign” where the public were encouraged to buy between 1 and 4 decking boards and have an “honour plaque” fixed to the decking boards as recognition for their donation along with a 10 year membership of the club.

The club is very excited about the new “Members Deck” as it promises to be a very popular addition to the club and as it nears completion you can see from these pictures that the excitement is fully justified. The deck is being constructed using the Futurewood composite decking 138mm x 23mm x 5.4 metre solid decking boards in the Saltbush (Colour no longer available. Replaced with Weatherstone) colour to match the façade. During the construction Craig has commented that the Futurewood composite decking was very easy to work with and the fixing using concealed fix clips was a breeze plus the use of the breaker boards enhanced the overall deck design.

Futurewood were pleased to help and were also swept up in the community nature of the project having made a significant contribution towards the cost of the community based Members Deck” as part of their commitment to the project.

For more information about Futurewood products including CleverDeck composite timber decking and EnviroSlat timber look cladding call 1300 484 308 or email info@futurewood.com.au