Menlyn Maine Residences, Phase 2
Mixed-use high-rise

Menlyn Maine Residences, Phase 2

Menlyn Maine, Pretoria
A full residential tower wrapped, floor by floor, in a Terraco EIFS skin — insulation, mesh-reinforced basecoat and textured render carried over every slab edge, reveal and arris on the building.
LocationMenlyn Maine, Pretoria
SystemTerracoat textured topcoat over Styrobond DP basecoat + Terramesh glass-fibre mesh on EPS board
Facade fire (full EIFS system)PASS — temperature, flame-spread and mechanical criteria, SANS/BS 8414-2:2017
Pull-off adhesion>2.0 N/mm²
Water behaviourVapour-permeable, Sd <0.10 m; liquid-water uptake W24 <0.15 kg/m²·h^0.5
Site record2,479 photographs — Technopol's largest documented project album

Menlyn Maine Residences Phase 2 is a residential tower inside the Menlyn Maine precinct in Pretoria, standing alongside the completed Phase 1 block. Technopol supplied and installed the Terraco EIFS facade: EPS insulation board mechanically fixed to the structural frame, a Styrobond DP basecoat with Terramesh glass-fibre mesh embedded in it, and a Terracoat textured topcoat as the finished, weatherproof outer skin.

The job is the largest photographic record Technopol holds — 2,479 site photographs across the build. What they document is not a sample panel but a whole envelope: the tower fully scaffolded from ground to roof, boards going on level by level, then basecoat, then colour.

Two things in the photographs are worth a specifier's attention. The first is the fire strategy: bands of mineral wool are set into the EPS at every floor line, so the insulation layer is broken horizontally at each slab edge rather than running continuously up the facade. The second is that the reinforcement is genuinely continuous — the Terramesh is visible in the wet basecoat wrapping over window heads, down reveals and around external corners, not just on the flat.

What the system had to do here was cover a lot of geometry without a change of material. Deep window reveals, cill returns, projecting piers, soffits, parapets, banded colour changes. The finished elevations carry three render colours meeting at crisp, straight junctions, and the external arrises are sharp — held by corner and stop beads, not by a wet edge.

The specification behind that finish is documented: the full EIFS build-up passes SANS/BS 8414-2:2017 for facade fire spread, the coating's pull-off adhesion is greater than 2.0 N/mm², and the skin is vapour-permeable (Sd below 0.10 m) while resisting liquid water uptake (W24 below 0.15 kg/m²·h^0.5). On a high-rise, those are the three numbers that matter.

On this building
Product
Terraco Textured Coatings
On site

The photographs

Ours, taken on the job. Not renders.

The scale of the job: the whole tower scaffolded out for the facade, with the completed Phase 1 block on the right. Every square metre of that elevation is EPS board, mesh-reinforced basecoat and render, installed from the scaffold in lifts.PHOTO
The scale of the job: the whole tower scaffolded out for the facade, with the completed Phase 1 block on the right. Every square metre of that elevation is EPS board, mesh-reinforced basecoat and render, installed from the scaffold in lifts.
The build-up before render. White EPS board fixed back with washer-and-pin anchors, and a band of mineral wool set into the insulation at every floor line — the horizontal fire break at each slab edge. This is what the specifier should look for on a high-rise EIFS: the insulation layer is deliberately interrupted, not continuous.PHOTO
The build-up before render. White EPS board fixed back with washer-and-pin anchors, and a band of mineral wool set into the insulation at every floor line — the horizontal fire break at each slab edge. This is what the specifier should look for on a high-rise EIFS: the insulation layer is deliberately interrupted, not continuous.
Terramesh embedded in the wet Styrobond basecoat, carried over the window head and returned down into the reveal. The mesh is visible through the basecoat exactly where facades usually crack — at the opening corners and the arris — because the reinforcement is wrapped, not butted.PHOTO
Terramesh embedded in the wet Styrobond basecoat, carried over the window head and returned down into the reveal. The mesh is visible through the basecoat exactly where facades usually crack — at the opening corners and the arris — because the reinforcement is wrapped, not butted.
External corner, finished. The Terracoat grain runs unbroken around the arris and terminates against a bead, giving a straight, sharp edge and a defined stop. No feathered wet edge and no cracked corner.PHOTO
External corner, finished. The Terracoat grain runs unbroken around the arris and terminates against a bead, giving a straight, sharp edge and a defined stop. No feathered wet edge and no cracked corner.
A rendered pier meeting the soffit. The texture reads consistently across a large flat area and dies cleanly into the change of plane — worth squinting at if you are judging whether an EIFS finish will look flat or patchy from the street.PHOTO
A rendered pier meeting the soffit. The texture reads consistently across a large flat area and dies cleanly into the change of plane — worth squinting at if you are judging whether an EIFS finish will look flat or patchy from the street.
Full-height elevation, complete. Colour bands, punched openings, recessed shadow gaps and projecting frames all delivered in the same single render system across the whole building.PHOTO
Full-height elevation, complete. Colour bands, punched openings, recessed shadow gaps and projecting frames all delivered in the same single render system across the whole building.

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