Construction Design 1

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Openings

All of the houses at the site have punched hole openings in their load bearing walls. At the time of my site visits, the windows and doors had not been installed yet, but the openings in the walls had been built.

First floor wall partitions are now commonly made from timber primarily due to cost factors but also because of the reduced load on the floor beneath them and their ease of assembly. Therefore the weight of the roof will be taken by the inner leaf of the walls.

This image shows the stainless steel beam placed below the head. This is used because the head itself is merely a decorative element, therefore the beam provides the structural strength to hold up the head and the wall above.

The door openings, however, have a timber frame around the edge. This frame is not used for structural purposes, instead it will be the door frame onto which the door will be secured. The brickwork is built up around the frame.

This image, taken from below a head shows the construction of a door opening. In this image, the timber frame is placed within the brick wall (outer leaf), whereas the blockwork (the structural inner leaf) is held up by a steel beam.

Most of the openings will have dimensions according to the size of the bricks. For example the window opening above is two bricks wide. This makes the construction easier for the builders, as the bricks do not need to be cut into a variety of sizes. 

Fire regulations state that new houses of 3 storeys plus must have fire doors, which are self-closing to prevent the spread of a fire. The above image shows how the fire doors will look when they’re installed into the new houses. You can see the chain which is incorporated into this internal door on one of the finished properties, which is more aesthetically pleasing than the ugly contraption at the top of doors often seen in public buildings.