á Swedish Prefabricated Panel House / AB-Elementhus Renovation vs Demolition
Created on: 12 Jun 2019 17:51
H
HarvSpec
Hello everyone,
We have purchased a Swedish prefabricated house from the company AB-Elementhus. It features a solid masonry ground floor, on top of which the prefabricated house is built.
Initially, the plan was to completely demolish the house and replace it with a new cross-laminated timber (CLT) structure of the same size.
While studying the building documents and permits for the AB-Elementhus house, I was positively surprised by the construction.
The wall assembly is (inside to outside) 2cm (0.8 inches) cross-laminated timber, 16cm (6 inches) compressed wood chips, 2cm (0.8 inches) cross-laminated timber, and 0.2mm (0.008 inches) stove-lacquered aluminum.
The planned layout of the new building could be realized within the existing structure, so I am now considering renovating and upgrading instead of demolishing (insulation, interior, windows, etc.).
Does anyone have experience with these houses?
Best regards,
Harv
We have purchased a Swedish prefabricated house from the company AB-Elementhus. It features a solid masonry ground floor, on top of which the prefabricated house is built.
Initially, the plan was to completely demolish the house and replace it with a new cross-laminated timber (CLT) structure of the same size.
While studying the building documents and permits for the AB-Elementhus house, I was positively surprised by the construction.
The wall assembly is (inside to outside) 2cm (0.8 inches) cross-laminated timber, 16cm (6 inches) compressed wood chips, 2cm (0.8 inches) cross-laminated timber, and 0.2mm (0.008 inches) stove-lacquered aluminum.
The planned layout of the new building could be realized within the existing structure, so I am now considering renovating and upgrading instead of demolishing (insulation, interior, windows, etc.).
Does anyone have experience with these houses?
Best regards,
Harv
Hello SEH residents/owners,
I have a silly question again đ: Our electrician was surprised while reviewing the construction plans and the upper layer of the attic ceiling structure whether there are no load-bearing beams installed. (He wants to run cables in the ceiling at two locations.) In the documentation I have, there is actually no mention of load-bearing beams anywhere. The wooden ceiling structure seems to rest only on the walls and consists of plywood or spruce boards and compressed wood chips. And that is stable? According to the expert report, the ceiling should be able to carry a load of 200 kg/m2 (41 lb/ft2) with a maximum span of 6 m (20 ft). That doesnât sound right to meâwhat have you discovered regarding this?
Best regards
Christoph
I have a silly question again đ: Our electrician was surprised while reviewing the construction plans and the upper layer of the attic ceiling structure whether there are no load-bearing beams installed. (He wants to run cables in the ceiling at two locations.) In the documentation I have, there is actually no mention of load-bearing beams anywhere. The wooden ceiling structure seems to rest only on the walls and consists of plywood or spruce boards and compressed wood chips. And that is stable? According to the expert report, the ceiling should be able to carry a load of 200 kg/m2 (41 lb/ft2) with a maximum span of 6 m (20 ft). That doesnât sound right to meâwhat have you discovered regarding this?
Best regards
Christoph
ChriHol schrieb:
Hello SEH residents/owners,
I have another stupid question 🙄 : Our electrician was surprised when reviewing the building plans and the upper layer of the intermediate ceiling in the attic, asking if there were no load-bearing beams installed? (He wants to run cables in the ceiling at two points.) In the documentation I have, there is actually no mention of any load-bearing beams. The wooden ceiling structure seems to rest only on the walls and consists of plywood or spruce boards and compressed wood chips. And that is stable? According to an expert report, the ceiling should support a load of 200 kg/m2 (41 lbs/ft2) with a maximum span of 6 m (20 ft). That sounds suspicious to me â what have you discovered in this regard?
Best regards
Christoph Hi Christoph
Well... depending on the type of house you have, you might have SEHâs timber frame version. (I have that variant.) In this case, you have studs in the walls that in turn support the wooden beam ceiling at various points. In my opinion, thatâs nothing unusual and should be typical for modern timber frame constructions. Maybe safety factors and margins were a bit more conservative in the past. But perhaps I misunderstood your question. Ceiling joists without multiple supports or with a long span are usually only installed if thereâs no other option. That would require very large rectangular cross-sections in that case.
Hanina schrieb:
the supports in turn hold up the wooden beam ceiling at various points. Hello Hanina,
My current point of confusion concerns the term "beam." With a wooden BEAM ceiling, I actually imagined rectangular beams as load-bearing elements, on which floor or ceiling coverings are attached above and below. That is how the ceiling to the attic is constructed in our still-inhabited house.
In the SEH, it seems to be different. I cannot find any reference to a load-bearing wooden beam structure. Instead, the ceiling elements appear to consist of strips of chipboard or spruce wood with sawdust filling, which themselves seem to function like wooden beams. Am I understanding this correctly? Or have I simply not yet identified the beams in the ceiling?
ChriHol schrieb:
Hello Hanina,
My current point of confusion is about the term "beam." For a wooden BEAM ceiling, I was actually picturing rectangular beams as the load-bearing elements, with floor or ceiling panels attached above and below them. This is how the ceiling to the attic is constructed in our still-inhabited house.
In the SEH, it seems different. I can't find any reference to a load-bearing wooden beam structure. Instead, the ceiling elements appear to be made of strips of chipboard or spruce wood with chip filler, acting like beams themselves. Am I understanding this correctly? Or have I simply not yet identified the beams within the ceiling? I believe this would definitely not work. The panels need to rest on some sort of substructure. Especially since these particleboard panels do not have any significant bending strength.
Please keep in mind that the construction method has changed SIGNIFICANTLY over the years.
The example from page 1 of my house has nothing to do with traditional timber frame construction. Regarding the question from @ChriHol, I assume he has such a house.
In that case, itâs exactly like this: there are no beams; the individual components themselves act as the âbeams.â The elements serve as both the load-bearing structure and the cladding. Somewhere there is a note about the building permit / planning permission that explains all this in detail.
For your electrician: either embed the wiring (installation level) or route ducts along the wall (for example, at ceiling edges). I would prefer embedding it because otherwise, you will need surface-mounted junction boxes everywhere.
And this construction works well; I even think it has much more character than the later versions.
In our living room, these ceiling elements span freely over 4.5m (15 feet) without any issues and hold up perfectly.
The example from page 1 of my house has nothing to do with traditional timber frame construction. Regarding the question from @ChriHol, I assume he has such a house.
In that case, itâs exactly like this: there are no beams; the individual components themselves act as the âbeams.â The elements serve as both the load-bearing structure and the cladding. Somewhere there is a note about the building permit / planning permission that explains all this in detail.
For your electrician: either embed the wiring (installation level) or route ducts along the wall (for example, at ceiling edges). I would prefer embedding it because otherwise, you will need surface-mounted junction boxes everywhere.
And this construction works well; I even think it has much more character than the later versions.
In our living room, these ceiling elements span freely over 4.5m (15 feet) without any issues and hold up perfectly.
Hanina schrieb:
I donât think that would work at all. The panels have to rest on some kind of substructure. Thatâs exactly my point. But in the documentation for our Borgholm 89, there is no mention of this. Thatâs why I wanted to ask other SE owners if they could give me a tip on where in the ceiling I should look. Have you encountered such beams in your house and could, for example, tell me how far from the exterior wall they are located?
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