HITCH™ Cladding Attachment System Has Achieved Passive House Advanced Component Certification

Company to manufacture patented attachment system for rear ventilated facades and wall assemblies with continuous exterior insulation offering a thermally broken and intermittent structural support solution

Longboard Architectural Products Inc. (“Longboard,” or “the Company”), a global leader in manufacturing premium interior and exterior architectural and design products, today announced their new HITCH™ cladding attachment system. HITCH™ can accommodate continuous exterior insulation thicknesses between 1” and 16” which makes it suitable for use in all Passive House and ASHRAE climate zones across North America.

HITCH™ has received the advanced component certification seal from the Passive House Institute in Germany, considered to be the world’s most ambitious energy efficiency seal. Certified Passive House components are typically two to three times more efficient than the corresponding commonly used products. This high level of efficiency is critical to achieving the Passive House Standard.

The HITCH™ system features:

• Premium construction, durably designed for a service life of over 50yrs
• High tensile aluminum, stainless & galvalume steel for improved structural performance
• Built to be a modular, adaptable system, telescopically adjustable up to 1”
• Supports vertical and horizontal girt designs, and one- or two-layer girt assemblies
• High structural capacity for heavy cladding loads up to 15psf under high wind load and seismic conditions
• Accommodates continuous exterior insulation between 1” – 16” thick for >R60 walls
• Thermally broken attachment system with high thermal efficiency of more than 90%
• Cost effective, quick to install, and designed to be used on various types of building structures including masonry, concrete, wood and steel stud
• Independently certified by the Passive House Institute as an Advanced Component Façade Anchor for the Cool, Temperate Climate Zones

“Longboard is known as the gold standard of exterior cladding and interior design products, but we pay close attention when our industry has a need for a better solution in other areas,” said Mike Heppell, Owner and President of Longboard. “The HITCH™ system was designed from the ground up by our Product Innovation team to solve several problems: 1) to improve thermal efficiency and reduce carbon emissions, 2) to make an easy to use and cost-effective attachment system for buildings, and 3) to reduce future waste by simplifying the recladding process. With HITCH™, installers can simply remove the old cladding and affix new cladding in a snap.”

“It is rare in our industry to be able to achieve the Passive House Advanced Component certification, and even more so in regard to façade anchoring systems,” said Stefan Jansen van Vuuren, VP of Product Innovation at Longboard. “Most of these certified components are only manufactured and available in Europe so we are very proud that we can now offer a locally designed and manufactured system to the North American market.”

“We applaud Longboard’s product innovation, which helps speed up the adoption of constructing high-performance buildings and brings us one step closer to meeting Canada’s carbon emissions targets,” said Chris Petit, Technical Services Manager, Passive House Canada. “It’s great to have these high-performing components locally produced and available in the market.”

HITCH™ cladding attachment products will be available to order from Longboard in Q1, 2022. For more information, visit https://www.longboardproducts.com/.

About Longboard Architectural Products Inc.
Longboard® Architectural Products provides the design and construction community with inspiring architectural products for thoughtful spaces. Founded in 2005, Longboard manufactures top-quality extruded aluminum profiles that are offered in a variety of solid color and woodgrain powder-coated finishes for interior and exterior spaces.

Longboard’s goal is to drive product innovation and excellence, provide radical client care and industry-best lead times, and advance sustainability in construction by creating products that reduce carbon emissions over their life cycle. Longboard is ICC ESR-4183 and ESR-4184 certified, manufactures in North America, and is headquartered in British Columbia, Canada.

About Passive House Canada
Founded in 2013, Passive House Canada is a national non-profit professional association advocating for the Passive House high-performance building standard. Passive House is recognized internationally as the proven best way to build for comfort, affordability, and energy efficiency of residential, institutional, and commercial buildings, through all stages of design, construction, and livability. For more information, visit https://www.passivehousecanada.com/