For nearly 20 years, Longboard has been combining innovation, quality, performance, and sustainability to create an uncompromising suite of extruded aluminum products. These products can be used in commercial, institutional, single-family, multifamily, and many more building segments and have both interior and exterior applications. They control the full lifecycle of production from their facilities in Abbotsford, British Columbia, and ethically source their aluminum. This allows them to expand from a focus exclusively on cladding to the assembly that attaches the cladding to the exterior insulation layer of a high-performance home. The result is the HITCH^TM system.

This new system represents an expansion into the world of thermally efficient design and construction. Introduced in 2022, HITCH™ is a cladding attachment system for rain screen and exterior wall assemblies that has been certified by the Passive House Institute for cool and temperate climates. As Longboard Product Development Manager Aaron Fraser explains, the HITCH™ system is designed to easily accommodate layers of exterior insulation that range from 1 to 16 inches. Its structural capacity makes it compatible with a variety of cladding types, all while reducing the total number of penetrations into the building envelope.

Using the HITCH^TM system in conjunction with Longboard’s aluminum cladding systems is assurance of durability and adaptability. “Our cladding can stay in the building for 15 or 20 years without a problem,” Fraser says. “When you’re done, you can recycle it and put something else up.” However, the HITCH^TM system, as well as the exterior insulation layer below, can remain in place for years or even decades longer.

One thing that may not be clear when looking at a spec sheet, however, is that the system is designed to be extremely practical and easy to use. As anyone who has been on a construction site will know, there are not a lot of completely straight or plumb walls in the world and any component that is too rigid to adapt to real world scenarios is never going to perform as it should. Consequently, adjustability takes center stage for the HITCH^TM system, which includes three distinct models: SD, HD, and HD+. The SD is designed for walls outfitted with between 1-2.5 inches of exterior insulation, HD for walls outfitted with 3-16 inches of exterior insulation, and the HD+ is ideal for wall systems with between 6 and 16 inches of exterior insulation.

For the HITCH^TM HD and HD+ in particular, the range allows installers to better control the depth and elevation off the structure and is the result of a telescopic stainless-steel arm extending between the thermal base and the thermal cap. The former attaches to the cladding system, while the latter attaches to HITCH^TM Girts. The thermal cap can be rotated for either vertical or horizontal girt designs and can be used on one- or two-layer girt assemblies.

Thermal bridge free design is an integral component of all high-performance building assemblies. By relying on Longboard’s HITCH^TM system, design teams are assured a turnkey solution that is flexible, easy to install, and capable of standing the test of time.