Briefly, here are a few dates: Earthworks and foundations began on March 20, 2011, and installation of K-KONTROL® panels began a month later on April 21, 2011. In Belgium, the construction industry has a mandatory summer break each year, during which work on construction sites is prohibited under threat of heavy penalties. Last year, this meant that practically no work was done on construction sites for the entire month of July. Nevertheless, the fourth and final floor of this building, including the roof structure, was completed by September 5, 2011. This means that the installation of the entire wooden supporting structure took only three and a half months. This may not be anything extraordinary for a wooden building. However, it is worth noting that the entire shell of this wooden building was constructed by only three workers! To give you an idea of the building, its size, equipment, and use, here are a few facts: The floor area of the four-story building is 2,800 m² (two thousand eight hundred square meters). It is a retirement home with fifty-five rooms. Each room has a toilet and a small bathroom. There is space for two restaurants and a common room, and each floor has shared bathroom facilities and an infirmary with a medicine dispensing room. The first floor was completely finished on December 6, 2011, and the first residents moved in during the Christmas holidays.
This means that nine months after the start of the project, without a month's vacation after eight months of construction, the building was ready for occupancy. For such a short construction period, it was very important to have a precise work plan. At certain moments, various works were carried out on all floors. The first floor was being painted, while concrete was being laid on the third floor.
One of the advantages of the K-KONTROL® construction system is its excellent dimensional accuracy, which made it possible to order all windows and doors in advance according to the drawings.
After the first floor structure was completed, the windows were installed immediately. However, before that, a waterproofing membrane was laid on the completed ceiling structure above the first floor. This temporary covering (a rubber-based material was used) made it possible to carry out plasterboard and plumbing work on the interior of the first floor without the risk of water damage, while continuing with the construction of the second floor. In addition, this covering ultimately helped to achieve good sound insulation for the entire ceiling structure. The same procedure was used for all other floors.
To eliminate noise transmission through the supporting structure, an acoustic rubber strip was placed on all K-KONTROL® panel walls, and only then were the supporting ceiling panels installed. The floor structure consists of sprayed 25 mm thick rubber granulate (impact sound insulation) and a 60 mm thick reinforced concrete slab. The floor covering consists mainly of ceramic tiles.
K-KONTROL® panels with a thickness of 170 mm were used for the perimeter load-bearing structures, the interior surface finish consisted of 12.5 mm thick plasterboard panels, and the facade was made of 90 mm thick facing bricks with an air gap and a waterproofing membrane. The total thickness of the perimeter wall was only 300 mm.
We have been involved in the construction and import of the K-KONTROL® construction system in Belgium for more than eight years. During this time, we have built countless high-quality houses with low energy coefficients. As you all know, wood is a building material that has very little impact on the environment, whether during production, use in construction, or disposal of waste from the production or construction of wooden buildings. It is a recyclable raw material that has no harmful emissions. Very little energy is needed to manufacture wood products. Wood is the only renewable material that can be used in construction. In addition, wood has many natural properties that are beneficial to our health.
It is one of the most durable natural building materials. In certain cases, wood can withstand loads several times greater than concrete.
In recent years, we have used the K-KONTROL® construction system mainly in large residential construction projects. Last year's largest contract was this four-story retirement home, where we used only K-KONTROL® construction system panels. Everyone was surprised by the very short construction time for such a large project and also by the fact that the building was ready for occupancy very quickly after completion. No wonder, since we don't use water in construction. That is precisely the great advantage of dry construction technology.
Thanks to the speed and simplicity of construction using the K-KONTROL® system and the use of dry construction for all other structures, it is possible to complete various floors even before the roof is in place. All this gives us a significant competitive advantage over other construction companies in Belgium, which mainly use traditional construction technologies. At the same time, it is the main reason why we prefer to build structures using the K-KONTROL® construction system.
