Partiwall passed real life fire test

On a quiet Sunday in September 2002, arsonists set fire to a town house under construction in Kensington, an inner suburb of Melbourne, causing about $350,000 damage.

The row of town houses used Boral Partiwall, which has a 60 minute fire rating, as the separation wall between the units.

It was some 90 minutes before the fire was fully extinguished and the system performed very well, protecting the units on both sides. While there was some fire and water damage to the unit on the left that required rectification, the right hand unit was undamaged. This pleased the builder immensely as it was due to be completed and handed over within a few weeks.

The simplicity of the Partiwall system was evident as the builder was able to rebuild the destroyed unit with a minimum of fuss, re-establishing the fire barrier between the other town houses should the unthinkable happen again.

Multi-residential construction has experienced a massive increase in popularity in both the inner and outer suburbs of our regional and capital cities.

This mode of building provides several advantages such as the ease and speed of construction, low cost, efficient space utilization and improved use of existing services.

When community living is desired, Boral Partiwall offers acoustic privacy and the security of a fire barrier that satisfies the Building Code of Australia. The system is lightweight and, in conjunction with conventional timber framed construction, doesn’t require additional foundations.

Boral Partiwall is a designer’s ‘dream’ system as there are no restrictions on the placement of water, electric and communication services. This is particularly useful when planning the location of wet areas.