About Rapidwall
Rapidwall
Rapidwall is a prefabricated walling panel with broad construction applications.
It is suitable for load-bearing walls for individual domestic cottages as well as for multi-storey residential buildings; formwork for suspended concrete floor structures and for most other purposes for which traditional building materials are currently used. Rapidwall is manufactured in a moulding process using glass-fibre reinforced, water-resistant gypsum plaster and water proofing additives. All panels are up to 12 metres long and 3 metres high. The panels are cellular in form and 124 millimetres thick. The formed cells can be used to accommodate building services such as plumbing and electrical conduits or they can be filled with insulation, for increased thermal performance, or with concrete for increased load bearing structural capacity.
Rapidwall Details
Rapidwall is a load bearing building panel with a multitude of uses for the construction industry.
It is ideal for just about any construction in which current building practices are used and is suitable for single, double or multi-storey housing and for commercial and industrial development. Rapidwall eliminates the need for bricks, timber wall frames and plasterboard as it serves as both the internal and external load bearing wall. Because of its low energy and environmental credentials, Rapidwall is particularly suitable in areas where traditional building materials, that have high energy usage, high carbon emissions or cause degradation to the environment, are no longer sustainable. Rapidwall panels are manufactured, in moulding process, from high grade gypsum plaster and glass-fibre rovings to a size of 12 metres by 3 metres by 124 millimetres thick. The hollow sections, or voids, have 250 millimetre centres. The panels are cut in the factory to design specifications to a maximum tolerance of 5 millimetres.
After cutting, the panels are loaded onto collapsible frames called stillages ready for transport to the building site. Up to 400 m² of Rapidwall can be transported on one truck. The panels are lowered into position using a crane and supported by props until the structure is completed. The formed cells can be filled with insulation for increased thermal performance or with concrete for increased load-bearing structural capacity.
The hollow sections can accommodate building services such as plumbing and electrical conduits.
Rapidwall Features
Protection from all the elements - Fire, Hurricanes, Cyclones and Heat.
Produced from natural gypsum plaster, Rapidwall has a 2 hour fire rating when unfilled or a 4 hour fire rating when filled with concrete.
By using a simple tie down system, the roof is secured through the cavity of the wall to the foundation giving it significant protection against high winds.
Rapidwall has a high thermal insulation and when the hollows are filled with insulation even greater thermal properties are achieved.
Saves energy and the environment
Robert Omahen In his thesis, Ecologically Sustainable Development - Approaches in the Construction Industry University of Regensburg concludes that:
"Rapidwall offers huge savings in embodied energy - 66% for domestic buildings 40% for commercial buildings." He further states that, Rapidwall uses "fewer raw materials but doesn’t compromise on load bearing capability and the total CO2 saving of Rapidwall, for residential dwellings in Australia would be about 63% or 3.91 million tonnes compared to brick." Click here for the full report.
High quality finish
The manner in which Rapidwall is manufactured means that both sides, the internal and external surfaces, are finished to a very high quality thereby dramatically reducing construction and finishing time.