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Wooden infill panel walls

What are infill panels?

Timber frame infill walls are designed to take just the load of their own weight, facade  and the wind loads that affect them making the elements lightweight and easy to assemble. The technique is the most competitive in the Nordic countries for blocks of flats with 4 to 5 storeys or more. The current market share in Swedish multi-family construction is believed to be at least 90 percent. 

Production

Wooden infill panels are prefabricated in a factory where windows can already fitted and delivered optimally packed saving time and labor on site and shortening the cycle time of the project which increases ROI. 

Read more about wood panel production

Solutions

There are two main ways of fitting wooden infill panels into the steel, concrete or masonry structure. Either the panels can be fitted into or partly into the structure or outside the structure. The component can be clad with an external layer of plaster, brick, wooden paneling or other sheathing material in order to match the building’s design and surrounding buildings. 

Read more about designing prefabricated wood elements

Advantages of wooden infill panels

Rapid installation of wood frame infill walls creates a weather-tight envelope allowing other activities within the building to proceed much earlier than would be possible with block-work infill walls. Most often you get added savings because panel installation is quick and can be done with a lift so you don’t need scaffolding.

Fewer materials and less labour to lift and move materials are required. Waste on the building site is almost completely eliminated.

Wood frame walls are much lighter and thinner than conventional block-work walls and do not apply heavy line loads to the floor. This is often crucial in refurbishment applications where the quality of the original floor construction is not sufficient to resist heavy loads.

Wood frame external walls support lightweight cladding by fixing directly to structural frame or through the insulation to the supporting wood frame or indirectly to additional rails that are fixed to the wood frame.

In hospitals, schools and other similar applications, wood frame infill walls and separating walls have important benefits by being re-locatable as demand for space changes during the life of the building.

Fire resistance periods of up to 120 minutes can be easly achieved using multiple layers of fire resistant’ plates.

Wood frame walls can achieve excellent acoustic insulation of 60 dB+.

A high level of thermal insulation is provided by a variety of insulation boards that attach externally to the studs to create a ‘warm frame’. U-values of less than 0.2W/m²C can be achieved with lesser wall thickness. The increasingly stringent requirements for energy efficient buildings in various countries are among the main driving forces behind the use of this wall solution.

Wood is a reusable material that captures carbon in it for a long time which makes this the best solution to decrease the carbon footprint. Prefabrication of standardized panels reduces waste and allows optimal transportation to construction site.

Our engineers will design the optimal building elements for your needs

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