Residential buildings

Houses

The most common application. Here the advantages of the technology are felt directly:

• thinner walls, more usable floor area,
• fast, dry construction,
• an accurate, dimensionally stable structure,
• a freely tunable build-up.

The typical questions — “will it sound hollow?”, “what can I hang on the wall?” — are all build-up and design questions. Building physics and build-ups.

Apartment and multi-dwelling buildings

This is where the acoustic requirement on separating elements enters, and where the technology becomes genuinely valuable:

• the party wall gives the same result at roughly half the thickness of brick, Party walls,
• a massive floor build-up is recommended, Floor build-ups,
• the fire requirement is stricter, so the build-up has to suit it.

The wall thickness saved can be several square metres per flat.

Terraces and semi-detached houses

Because of the repetition the design is produced once and manufacture multiplies it accurately. Party wall acoustics is a central question here too.

Number of storeys

The usual manufacturing plant gives solutions for 1–4 storey structures; machines handling thicker material also serve medium-rise buildings. The machine range.

The actual limit comes from the structural design, the bracing and the anchorage, not from the technology in itself.

What to think through specifically for housing

The sound insulation expectation

Not only between dwellings: between bedroom and corridor, bathroom and living room too. That is a build-up decision, and it belongs in the design brief.

The feel of the floor

Vibration is the most common complaint afterwards — and the easiest to prevent.

The service routes

The depth of the service cavity should suit the diameter of the pipework. Service cavity.

The point

In housing the advantages of the technology show up in daily use: more space, better sound insulation, a stable structure. But they depend on the build-up, not on the frame.