Partition walls
Whenever you consider partition walls you should immediately think of SCQ. Are you interested in partition walls for your home or business premises? Or would you like to know what materials would be most suitable for your partition? The addition of partition walls is very common. SCQ specializes in wall partitions and offers a large range of partition types and systems. They pride themselves in giving you all the information and advice you need to get the results you want.
What is a partition wall?
Before we get into the technical details, let’s discuss a little about partition walls in general. A partition wall is a wall that divides one space into separate areas. It is a wall inside a home or inside a commercial or industrial building. It divides a space into separate areas and its design strategy is not to help carry the load of the roof or the stories above. This gives extra flexibility in planning and allows for more creativity in design.
What are partition walls for?
Partition walls are very common in both residential and commercial or industrial settings. The fact that they are removable makes them very popular in commercial fitouts and leased industrial premises.
Whether you need more rooms or your existing space just needs a makeover, partition walls are a great solution. Your beautiful new design will be fresh, inviting and showcase your creativity, great taste and personality. The finishes you choose will make your space unique. Use the product you want, the height you want and the colour you want. SCQ offer an expert advisory team to show you all your options and discuss your needs. Through consultation with you a we develop a careful plan to complete your project with minimal disruptions to your daily schedule. We don’t just work for you. We work with you.
If you are planning any form of renovation or reconstruction, there is a real possibility you are going to need to remove an existing wall or walls to make way for the new. To preserve the health of yourself, others who use the space and our team, our specialists always check for the presence of potentially harmful material such as asbestos, before removing anything or working on your space. We use a professional asbestos removal team to safely take care of any harmful materials. This takes away the stress of finding people you can trust to perform the job properly, safely and conform to all Australian standards and safety guidelines.
Wall system design
Partition wall systems are not load bearing but there are still many variables to consider. In Australia most manufacturers diligently test their products. They test their wall systems in controlled environments under different circumstances. These companies record the results and make them available to consumers. This allows you to to make informed decisions regarding choice of material and systems.
Choosing the right wall system
There are many features of partition wall systems you will consider when planning your upgrade. You will require some features and not others. Choosing the system that suits your needs best will heavily impact the effectiveness of the wall. It will also impact the look, the cost, the durability of the wall, construction time and most importantly your satisfaction with the end result. Careful consideration of each aspect during the planning stage will ensure your job runs smoothly and ends perfectly. Your SCQ professional will guide you all the way.
Some features to consider:
Functionality: Does the wall need to house electrical, plumbing, air-conditioning, telephone or internet cables or other services? The wall needs to be of sufficient thickness to house the services within it.
Construction time: Some wall systems take longer to construct than others. Consult with our team to ensure the system you choose fits in with the time-frame you have made available for construction.
Soundproofing:
Do you require acoustic benefits from your new partition wall/s? The thicker the wall, the easier it is to soundproof. Thicker walls also lend themselves to more room for acoustic insulation to assist with reduction of noise transition.
Flexibility and adaptability:
Choosing a wall system that that is more readily removable gives you the option of further changes at a later date. You may wish to alter the wall or completely remove the wall as your tastes and needs change.
Wall Weight:
Although a partition wall is not load-bearing; i.e. support roofing or higher levels, it still puts more load on the supports below. Ensure that the load-bearing structure below supports the weight of your new wall. Your SCQ specialist will advise you in this regard.
Wall Height:
Partition walls need not extend to ceiling height. If you wish to demarcate an area without losing the open-space or open-plan effect of your home, the partition wall need only extend as high as required. Examples of this showcase in bedrooms where a half-height wall separates the sleeping area from a bath or spa area. Another common use of this effect is where the owner desires a hallway without closing off the space, for example beside a lounge room or dining room to demarcate the thoroughfare. This area may even have a different floor covering such as tiles to increase durability, whereas the lounge or dining room may be carpet.
Durability:
Consider how much traffic the wall will service, who will be using the space and how damaging the activities within the space might be. Choose a product appropriate to the wear and tear the wall could suffer. Hallways and children’s playrooms tend to suffer more than other areas.
Shape:
Your partition wall need not be a straight line. Your original space may require that you need to build the wall around existing immovable structures, or you may just prefer the look of a different shaped wall. SCQ specialize in building walls and ceilings on different angles and in different shapes. We even build curved or wavy partition walls.
Finished look:
This is the choice that truly reveals your taste and creative flair. Choices range from smooth walls ready to paint in any colour you desire to textured finishes such as stone sheeting.
Budget:
Of course one of the most important considerations is budget. Your SCQ consultant will there to advise you on how to get your biggest “bang for buck” and to advise you of all the options available. This keeps costs to a minimum and still produces an amazing, professional result.
The creation of a new and different space can be useful in many ways, for example:
- Privacy: A new room for study, for a bedroom, for an ensuite, for an office
- Lighting: Different spaces allow for different lighting options. An office or study will need brighter more direct lighting than a bedroom. A massage room will need a softer and perhaps even adjustable lighting system.
- Décor and furniture: Different spaces allow for choice of different furniture and décor specifically for the purpose of each individual space. A bedroom would typically display furnishings in different colours to a kitchen or lounge room.
- Noise reduction: Some areas require the wall to keep noise out, such as a study, office or bedroom. Meanwhile, other areas might need noise kept in, such as kids’ playrooms, theatre room or music room.
- Temperature regulation and fireproofing: Well insulated partition walls provide temperature regulation and fireproofing.
Partition Walls in the commercial or industrial setting
Partition walls are popular in businesses throughout the world, in both commercial and industrial settings. Within industrial buildings these walls commonly provide office space. Industrial buildings can be very busy and noisy. A separate space for an office or offices is perfect to allow for privacy, peace and quiet and clean space to attend to and store paperwork and computers. Planning often entails designing partition walls in conjunction with suspended ceilings to assist with control of noise, dirt and dust, temperature and fireproofing and to provide a more efficient space for air-conditioning.
As your business grows, your staff will increase and you will need room to accommodate them. In commercial businesses partition walls allow business owners to make the most of total space available to them. Partition walls create extra rooms for more efficient use of space. Perhaps you would you like to add a lunch room or a meeting room. The options are endless.
Partition walls have many functions such as:
Dividing a space:
This could give each different department a separate space or give your staff their own space in which to work.
Providing privacy:
Your staff will appreciate some privacy to work. Their appreciation will benefit your business through improved staff morale and therefore in increased productivity. Customers will also appreciate individual office spaces. They prefer to discuss their personal information in the privacy of a quiet office.
Increasing productivity:
As well as the increased productivity gained through improved staff morale, benefits in productivity will also result from reducing distractions and disturbances that are more common in large open spaces.
Aesthetic improvement:
A well-planned and contemporary designed fit-out incorporating partition walls will vastly improve the overall aesthetic appeal of your business. Your staff will be more enthusiastic and you could attract more customers.
Improving first impressions:
The only thing you never get a second chance at is “the first impression”. Most people form an opinion in the first 3 seconds of seeing something or someone for the first time. Having a professional, modern commercial space will ensure your customers’ first impression of your business is a positive one. The design of your layout and the finishes you choose will greatly affect the general vibe of your business and contribute to making your customers feel welcome. It also assists in giving customers confidence that they are in the hands of professionals.
Noise reduction:
Keeping noise from surrounding spaces out allows for improved concentration and therefore increased productivity. Meanwhile, in other areas, the noise might need to be kept in. Good examples of these lie in planning kids’ playrooms, theatre rooms, music rooms and anywhere that people are discussing personal matters.
Temperature regulation and fireproofing:
Temperature regulation and fireproofing produce great benefits of well-insulated walls in addition to soundproofing.
Partitions walls for Social Distancing:
The Corona Virus Pandemic has created so many challenges in so many ways for people all over the world. Open-plan designs create significant health and safety challenges during the Corona Pandemic and will continue to do so in the wake of the event after the main crisis has passed. Partition walls are useful in creating compartments and making walkways. They are a fast and easy solution to social distancing requirements and also tick boxes to comply with Work Health and Safety.
Types of wall partitions:
SCQ uses various materials to construct partition walls. They can be built specifically to suit their environment- using impact resistant material in a toy room or waterproof material for a bathroom are good examples of this. Some of various options provided by SCQ are detailed below.
Steel Stud Partitions:
Suspended Ceilings QLD specialize in installing steel partition walls. Steel stud partitions are a strong and lightweight alternative to timber studs. These walls create much more effective spaces, especially for offices.
Lightweight steel provides the structure of the walls. Then a range of plasterboard or fibre cement board screws to the structure. There is a wide range of wallboards available to choose from. You can choose from boards offering acoustic or thermal qualities and even fire rating qualities. Finally, flush setting and sanding produces a smooth result that looks great. It is then ready to paint in your favourite colour.
Advantages of steel over timber:
So why use steel partitions rather than the traditional timber wall? Steel stud partitions are a quick, convenient, lightweight, termite resistant, reliable alternative to timber framing. Galvanised steel structures ensure the system is resistant to rust and will last the life of your fitout. Steel, unlike timber arrives straight and makes building straight walls easy. Whereas timber comes bowed and often needs straightening by the carpenter to compete with steel.
Timber has the disadvantage of not being uniform in structure. Knots in the timber studs may cause weaknesses in the timber and ultimately in wall structure.
Steel studs come with holes built in. This saves time for following contractors to run services through them prior to sheeting. The pre-drilled holes improve efficiency and help get the job done faster. Being lightweight makes steel partitions ideal for areas where you do not want excess weight on floors. Good examples of this are buildings that are more than 1 story high.
Steel Studs are termite resistant unlike timber. With timber studs use of treated timber is necessary to get a similar result.
Below is a summary of the benefits of using steel:
- Light weight
- Termite resistant
- Rust resistant
- Fast and convenient
- Uniform in structure (no knots)
- Come with holes built in (for convenience of other services and tradesmen)
Plasterboard:
The most common board we use to clad our partitions is plasterboard. Plasterboard is cost effective and produces a smooth, strong wall that is long-lasting. The surface is reasonably durable and is suitable for use with wallpaper, texture compounds, paint and most other types of decorative finishes.
Plasterboard is panel made of calcium sulfate dihydrate (gypsum). The manufacturing process flattens the gypsum and coats both sides with heavy paper. You will have heard names like Gyprock, Sheetrock, MastaShield etc. These brands of plasterboard are made by companies such as CSR, USG/Boral and KNUAF. Plasterboard offers many advantages.
Some of the advantages of plasterboard over other types of cladding include:
- Affordability: Plasterboard is rather cost effective when compared to other types of cladding.
- Weight: It is lightweight and easily repairable.
- Minimisation of waste: Plasterboard comes in many sizes to suit different applications, thereby minimizing waste. Sheets come in lengths up to 6m.
- Choice: There are many different types of plasterboard available to suit nearly every application.
- Convenience: Plasterboard even comes in square edge. This comes with one square edge and one recessed edge, to eliminate need for skirting around the floor. Negating the need for skirting is a cost saving to the consumer.
- Noise control: If noise reduction is one of your objectives, partition walls can be installed with sound insulation between the two layers of plasterboard. In addition to this insulation, the plasterboard itself is available in acoustic varieties (noise reducing plasterboard).
Standard Plasterboard is not suitable for use in wet areas such as bathrooms and laundries. However, there is a large selection of water-resistant boards available for use in these areas. Some common brands include CSR Aquachek, USG Boral Wetstop and Knauf Watershield.
Fibre cement sheeting:
Fibre cement sheeting is a composite sheet. It’s components are cellulose fibres, sand and cement. It is an exceptionally durable product. This sheeting is useful where longevity and resilience are a priority. Fibre cement sheeting is safe once installed. Tradesmen must however take care during it’s installation. That is why it’s important you only use qualified and licenced personnel for its installation. Some common brands of fibre cement include James Hardies Villaboard, CSR Cemintel and BGC Duraliner.
Advantages and disadvantages of using plasterboard and fibre cement sheets:
Plasterboard partitions are both fast and economic. They allow for flexibility and adaptability. While there is a vast majority of advantages to using plasterboard and fibre cement sheets, these products do have a couple of disadvantages.
Advantages of plasterboard and fibre cement sheets:
Speed and convenience: Plasterboard and fibre cement sheeting are both relatively fast and clean to install in conjunction with your chosen partition wall framework.
Adaptability: Partition walls are easy to remove when they are lined with plasterboard or fibre cement sheeting.
Economic viability: Plasterboard and fibre cement sheeting are among the most cost effective products used to line partition walls. This is because the cost of the material product is competitive, wastage is minimal and also because the cost of labour is reduced due to shorter construction times.
Finish: Plasterboard gives a perfectly smooth surface ready for your individual touch, whether that be paint, wallpaper or a textured finish.
The main disadvantages of plasterboards are:
Durability: Plasterboard is prone to damage from minor bumps and scratches.
Inability to cope with additions: You will not be able to just hang a heavy picture frame to your wall or hang shelves without planning for these additions prior to construction of the wall.
Sound absorbing wall systems:
We install a wide variety of acoustic wall solutions to solve your problems with sound travelling between rooms. Sound rated walls are ideal in places such as schools, offices, medical facilities, meeting rooms etc. These walls will assist in reducing the noise within a room, as well as blocking sound from escaping from the room, and also blocks noise from outside the room from getting in. This is really useful in spaces where privacy is a must such as in medical consultation rooms, libraries, music rooms and any room where peace and quiet is a must. Whatever your needs are, the SCQ team have you covered. They have the experience and knowledge to advise you. They enjoy assisting customers to make informed decisions about planning their space. SCQ love to see you get the finished product you need and want.
Board manufacturers offer a huge variety of tested acoustic wall systems to cater for most requirements. Different factors can affect the performance of these wall systems. Firstly, board type has an impact and special sound absorbing plasterboard is available for use. Secondly, different insulations can be used to achieve better results. This can include not only different types of insulation, but different thicknesses and densities as well.
Impact resistant wall systems:
Sometimes an area may benefit from an impact resistant wall system. Schools, day-care centres, thoroughfares are all good examples of such places. Impact resistant plasterboard is available and offers a huge improvement over normal plasterboard in terms of resisting damage. Another option is using 9mm fibre cement sheeting to achieve extra damage resistance. Some systems offer multiple layers of sheeting and can use a mixture of both impact plaster and fibre cement sheets. (Hospitals, shopping centres )
Water resistant wall systems:
A large range of water resistant wall systems are available. The 2 main systems that get used are water resistant plasterboard and fibre cement sheeted walls.
Water resistant plasterboard is growing in popularity over recent years. This is especially noticeable on the domestic scene. The main reason for this is water resistant plasterboard is a more cost effective solution than fibre cement options. Furthermore, WR board generally finishes nicer than fibre cement options. Fibre cement sheeting can offer challenges in setting, especially in well-lit areas or areas with glancing light; e.g. through windows. Visible change in texture between the fibre cement sheeting and the plaster setting the joins can reduce the quality of the finish.
WR board gives a superior finish similar to a plasterboard wall. WR board is cheaper and easier to install than fibre cement sheeting, especially when the new health regulations relating to silicosis and other respiratory complications. Water resistant plasterboard is therefore safer to use than fibre cement. In addition, it’s quick to cut and install. It’s common for use in bathrooms, kitchens, laundry and change-rooms or external areas such as verandas and patios.
Fibre Cement walls systems:
So why would you consider using fibre cement? The simple answer is it’s very robust. In my experience fibre cement products are very tolerant to moisture, even more so than water resistant plasterboard. Whilst the finish is not as good as the plasterboard variations, the surface is particularly good for tiling. In addition, fibre cement can be purchased in 9mm as well as 6mm. The 9mm is common in schools and high impact areas due to its remarkably high resilience.
Fire rated wall systems:
There are many fit-outs that required fire-rated walls to be installed. There are distinct advantages of using steel frame fire-rated solutions over walls such as blockwork. Easier to uninstall should the need arise. They also weight less than core filled block variants making them ideal where weight is a factor. Generally, the smooth finish of plasterboard is preferred over the finish of raw masonry or concrete. In turn, this saves the additional expense of battening and lining after installation. Different fire-rated systems are available to cater for different fire requirements. This usually involves additional layers of board and/or changes to board thickness to achieve the required level. That being said the high level of finish remains the same.
Why you can’t afford not to call SCQ:
Quite simply, we are the professionals! We specialise in partition walls and suspended ceilings. Not only are we specialists, but we strive to build and care for long-lasting relationships with our clients.
The best compliment any business can receive is recommendation from by their customers. That being said, much of our work either comes from word-of-mouth recommendation by our customers or directly from repeat customers.
We provide a service, not just a product. From your very first enquiry, we aim to keep you totally informed of all your options, timeframes and costs of each. Our professional advice is just part of our service to you. With over 25 years’ experience in the field, our team have a wealth of knowledge and experience to share with you.
Our team will advise you on the most suitable systems for the outcome you want. We offer assistance in the detail and planning of your new space. Meanwhile your budget is taken seriously and we offer cost-effective solutions for your needs.
Our passion is creating amazing new and refurbished spaces and happy, satisfied customers. We achieve this keeping overheads low to provide competitive prices. We keep promises on cost, timeframes and quality. Only experienced tradesmen with high work ethics are invited to work with SCQ’s dedicated team.
If you are considering installing, changing or repairing a partition wall, our team at SCQ would love to help you through the entire process, from planning to completion.