The interior of the
house, divided into individual rooms, divides internal, structural and
partition walls. With a few
exceptions, they can be made of the same materials. Let's look at the walls made in
masonry buildings.
Internal structural
walls
These walls, like
external constructional ones, transfer loads from ceilings, roofs, stairs and
resulting from own weight on foundations.
In masonry technologies,
internal structural walls are made as single-layered. Only if the wall separates the
terraced houses or the so-called twins,
two independent walls are made, joined with bolts. The gap between them is usually filled
with mineral wool in order to obtain the best acoustic insulation.
The internal
load-bearing walls are erected from the same materials as the outer walls. We wrote about it more extensively in
the folder Fri Home construction
technology and thermal properties of walls. That
is why we do not repeat here the description of individual masonry materials.
In houses built in
skeletal technologies, such as a wooden or steel frame, the design of internal
load-bearing walls is the same.
The thickness of the
wall, including the internal structural wall, depends on the so-called characteristic strength (fk) of the
material used. In the case of
fk> -5 MPa, the wall may have a thickness of 10 cm , and if fk is less than 5 MPa - 15 cm .
Particular attention
must be paid to joining internal and external structural walls. It must be made in a way that
guarantees the transfer of vertical and horizontal loads between them. This is possible due to the binding of
wall elements or the use of metal connectors, or reinforcement passing through
each wall. It is necessary that
both walls be erected (and joined together) simultaneously.
Walls
These walls, unlike
constructional ones, do not carry almost any loads, so they may have a more
delicate structure. Their basic
function is to divide rooms and to keep objects hanging on them, such as
cabinets or shelves.
Cellular concrete is
particularly eager to use it, as it is a lightweight material, and the large
dimensions of the blocks allow for quick work progress. Also, their trimming is simple, and
even a hand-sawing saw is enough.
Brick walls
Most often they have a
thickness of 6- 25 cm . If
they adhere to structural or non-loadbearing walls, they must be permanently
connected to them. Narrow walls
with a length of more than 5 m should be reinforced with reinforcing
bars or ladders placed in every third joint. Masonry
walls are fire resistant.
A few basic masonry
materials are used to erect partitions.
Ceramics - traditional
or pasted. The walls can be
constructed of solid bricks, perforations or grates as well as modular bricks.Elements
from porous ceramics are used when the entire building is made of this
material, so as not to lower the thermal insulation parameters. There are used checker and modular
bricks or hollow bricks intended for joining with tongue and groove - then the
elements are joined only by horizontal joints. The brick wall can be tied to the
load-bearing wall in a traditional way, with a tie or "on the touch".
Cellular concrete -
elements of gr. 6; 8; 11.5
or 12 cm and blocks of the gr. 18 cm . The
walls are bricked with ordinary cement-lime mortars or thin-layer adhesive
mortars. Partition walls can be
associated with structural elements in the same way as brick walls, i.e.
shreds, using the "touch" method with the use of stainless steel
connectors and with the use of metal profiles.
Silicates - full bricks
with dimensions of 25/12 / 6.5
cm or blocks 25/8/22, 25/12/22, 25/18/22 or 25/25/22 cm
are used.
Clay stain concrete -
hollow bricks are suitable for partition walls. 9- 12
cm , connected to a tongue and groove. Most often they are bricked up for a
traditional joint.
Gypsum elements - full
or hollow blocks are used, for example 80x8x40 or 80x17x40 cm. There are also large-format gypsum
boards - 50 cm high , 66
cm long - 6, 8 and 10 cm thick . The
boards are joined by a tongue and groove. Special
gypsum glue is used for their masonry. The
boards have a good fire resistance (with a plate thickness of 8 cm it
is 3 hours). Waterproof boards
are designed for damp rooms.
The heaviest are walls
made of silicate, ceramic or clinker bricks - from 200 to 290 kg / m2. Lightweight walls of hollow bricks and
bricks of holes or grids - from 90 to 200 kg / m2. Walls
erected from aerated concrete or gypsum elements are light - about 70-80 kg / m2.
If we plan to make
masonry external and partition walls made of various materials, it is a good
idea to use cellular concrete for structural walls, as it has very good thermal
insulation properties. Then
another material can be used for partition walls, eg silicate
Some materials, such as
modern cellular concrete or silicates, have such a smooth surface that the
walls made of them do not require plastering. It
is enough to finish with plaster gypsum, structural paint or spray wallpaper.
Skeletal walls
Thanks to the materials
used, they are very light. The
construction is made of a system steel grate (although it is also possible to
erect a wall on a wooden grate). The
profiles of UW or UD are fixed to the ceiling and floor, and CW or CD profiles
to the walls. Both of them must
be separated from the barriers by means of insulating tape limiting the
transmission of sounds through the structure. Inside
the horizontal profiles, vertical CW profiles are inserted and inserts mineral
wool insulation. A plasterboard
or gypsum-fiber board is screwed onto both sides of the skeleton. Depending on the width of the
profiles, the walls usually have a thickness of 7 to 12.5 cm . It
increases if you use a thicker plate or arrange it twice. In the walls constructed on the basis
of wide profiles, installation pipes can be run. Figure 6
Various types of
plasterboards can be used as the skin. Standard
boards (GKB) can be used in living rooms. In
bathrooms, kitchens and laundries it should be boards impregnated with a
hydrophobic agent (GKBI). The
GKFI boards are protected against dampness and at the same time with an
increased fire resistance, while only fireproof ones - GKF boards. For walls with an arched shape,
flexible boards are recommended, which can be bent dry, and where greater
resistance to impact is needed, boards with a greater thickness are used.
Gypsum-fiber boards are
slightly heavier than gypsum-cardboard, but more resistant to water and fire
and stiffer.
Skeletal walls, both
those constructed on the basis of wooden and steel construction, constitute a
very small load for ceilings.They weigh 20-50 kg / m2. However, only items weighing up to 30 kg can be hung on walls covered with
plasterboards .However, on the
walls with gypsum-fiber plating - objects weighing up to 100 kg , and double plating up to 120 kg .
What to choose
The load-bearing walls
are usually made of the same material as the external walls. However, this is not a prerequisite
for partition walls. It is worth
to make partitions made of light materials, but at the same time providing good
acoustic insulation. In a
multi-storey building, partition walls are - for this reason - masonry. However, if we have a house with a
usable attic, then often this space is divided by skeletal walls. They do not weigh heavily on the
ceiling and fulfill all functional requirements. In the attic are usually bedrooms, so
there is no need to hang very heavy objects, which - as we mentioned - may be a
limitation for the use of this type of construction.
