Applications – Rails for Cladding & Ceiling - Clip-on system for cladding, decking, docks, soffits, fences

Grad® systems : to build rainscreens or open-joint cladding, soffits, fences

The grad® system comes as an aluminum track (also called rail) pre-fitted with our grad® clips.

Grad® clips are not made of your traditional plastics.

Polyoxymethylen (or POM) is an engineering thermoplastic that is often used in the production of ski boots. With great dimensional stability, high mechanical strength and rigidity, corrosion resistance, toughness at low temperature (down to 40 C = 40 F), excellent resistance to moisture, gasoline, solvents and many other chemicals of neutral pH. It means the clips can be used across wide temperature range (in air 50 to +90 C = 60 F to +195 F), POM is a favorite across many fields in the construction industry and is recyclable.

Rail length: 6ft – 6.5ft

Why are clips pre-set onto an aluminum track? What does it mean?

Traditional cladding installations use furring strips onto which boards are fixed either thanks to clips that are individually fastened one at time onto the strips, or boards are fastened with screws that go through the boards and through the furring.

Our rails replace furring strips, our clips are pre-fixed onto the tracks to avoid individually fastening them, and boards are snapped on the clips so you don’t need to fix boards with screws.

Installation is fast, easy, straight-forward, and leaves no margin for errors.

How to use grad® rails?

Rails are to be fastened onto structural elements (studs, beams, concrete…). The type and number of required fasteners depend on the substrate and the wind zone. Check our installation guide for more recommendations.

Rails must be parallel to each other (simply use a level) and the clips from one rail to the other must be aligned. There is no need to use one rail per board! You need as many rails as you would need standard furring strips.

The system is used for different applications:

— narrow battens

— wide boards

— shiplap

— open-joint cladding

— vertical/horizontal/diagonal siding

— soffits

— fences

Which grad® rail should I use?

All our 3 rails can be used to build all the above but there are some differences between them:

— Mini Rails will offer a 0.47” air gap between the wall backing and the back of the outter cladding. In case of open joint cladding, Mini Rails do not allow boards from being removed with our special keys. Boards can only slide off

— Start Rails will offer a 0.71” air gap while offering the possibility for boards to be removed in case of open joint cladding

— PR39 rails will offer a 1.5” air gap, and open-cladding boards will be removable with our special keys