PlaceMakers Product Picks – December 2025     

Every month, we round up our top Product Picks to help make your projects run smoother and – hopefully – make your clients happier. Check out our picks for December below! 

New Zealand continues seeking building materials that perform reliably in demanding conditions. The JSC TMT® range offers a natural timber solution enhanced through heat and steam only, delivering stability and confidence without glues, laminations, or added chemicals. Backed by 125 years of New Zealand timber expertise, it’s a dependable choice for cladding, interior linings, battens, and architectural features.  

Why building professionals trust the JSC TMT® range:  

• Lightweight for easier handling and installation. 

• Strong coating compatibility – takes oil and water-based coatings well, including dark colours. 

• Significantly reduced swelling, shrinking, and cupping across NZ seasons.  

• CodeMark-certified cladding systems for compliance confidence.  

• Reduced susceptibility to fungi and decay.  

• Reliable nationwide distribution and readily available technical documentation.  

• Timber that stores carbon throughout the building lifecycle.   

Design flexibility for every project  

Available in brushed, bandsawn, or dressed, the JSC TMT® range supports broad creative freedom across both interior and exterior spaces. With a wide selection of profiles and compatibility with major coating brands –  including over 25 colour options with the JSC Coatings range –  it enables modern architecture while maintaining long-term performance integrity.  

Three species, three distinct looks  

• TMT Taiga: Warm character with expressive grain and butterfly knots. 

• TMT Amba: Refined texture with lighter golden-brown variation. 

• TMT Taxon: Soft, even grain with rich deeper tonal variation.   

Build with confidence. JSC TMT delivers on stability, longevity, and natural beauty for future-focused building in New Zealand. Contact JSC on jsc.co.nz for tailored samples or technical guidance.  

Winstone Wallboards has launched two new compounds for jointing plasterboard: GIB LiteSet® 150 minutes and GIB LiteSet® 45 minutes. These compounds are for the two-basecoat applications in a three-coat system and chemically set (/harden). This makes them ideal for the thicker first two coats in a three-coat application system.  

The GIB LiteSet® compounds are different to the popular GIB Tradeset® compounds in two ways; they can be sanded (easily scraped) and the viscosity during the working time is more stable (ie, it doesn’t thicken up during the working time, except right at the end of the working time when it warns that is will soon start to set hard).  

The GIB LiteSet® compounds have slick flow characteristics making them effortless to apply using a trowel or an application box.  

They are supplied in 18kg bags. The new 150 minutes and 45 minutes versions compliment the already available 90 minutes version.  

The feedback from interior plasterers that have tested the GIB LiteSet® compounds has been extremely positive.  See for yourself HERE.

We suggest trying the GIB LiteSet® basecoat compounds to appreciate these latest refinements.