Time and cost savings with the installation of wedi walls

Whether for renovations or new builds: building work in bathrooms must be done quickly so that they are available to use as soon as possible. This applies for private residences as much as for hotels and other facilities where renovations are frequently carried out with the facility remaining open. Building elements which can be installed quickly and easily are not only beneficial to owners, but also provide security in planning and calculations for tradespeople, planners and architects. Emsdetten-based wedi offers full system solutions for contemporary bathroom design. In particular, their building elements, made from extruded rigid polystyrene foam with a special fibre-mesh cement coating, are perfect for constructing a multitude of wall solutions. As a quick and reliable alternative to masonry using porous concrete, the 100% waterproof material provides a cost-effective solution thanks to the reduced workforce requirement.

wedi building elements can be used for a wide range of applications in wall construction and design: as wall cladding for sealing and/or levelling of existing walls or as a free-standing or partition wall for dividing different areas within a room. Entire systems for wet areas such as communal showers in public sanitary facilities and complete room solutions such as hotel bathrooms for example, can also be realised quickly and easily with wedi wall modules. Their light weight and easy handling along with their simple installation and short processing time pay off every time.

Comparison of a bricked wall and a lightweight wedi wall solution

The example of a 3 m² shower partition wall shows how bricked walls and lightweight solutions perform in direct comparison. 148.9 kg of building material (porous concrete bricks, adhesives, fabric, reinforcement mortar, wall anchor, sealing) is used for conventional masonry. For a wedi wall solution however (wedi building board XXL with dimensions of 1,200 x 2,500 x 50 mm and one tube of wedi 610 adhesive sealant) the total weight of required materials is only 14.3 kg. Thanks to less material being needed, just one person (instead of two) is required for the handling and installation of a wedi wall, and the work itself is easier and safer to carry out as well. The working time for building a wall is a massive 4 hours for masonry whilst for the lightweight wedi wall solution it is just half an hour. Furthermore, whereas the masonry can only be tiled after 5 days, the wedi wall is ready-to-tile the very next day.

This comparison clearly shows: that when building a 3 m² shower partition wall, the wedi lightweight solution takes

• approx. 65% fewer material components
• approx. 90% lower material weight
• approx. 85% shorter to process
• approx. 80% shorter to dry/cure
• significantly reduced workforce requirement

System solutions with integrated additional functions

If a niche needs to be integrated for storage, in a bricked wall this would be very laborious owing to the sealing: eight sealing corners and twelve sealing tapes would be needed for this, which means additional material and additional time. In the ready-to-install wedi Sanwell wall element, by contrast, the niche is already integrated during manufacturing and is therefore reliably sealed. What’s more, the size and position of the niche can be modified in just a few steps according to the customer’s requirements. Last but not least, the processing time of the lightweight wedi solution is more than 90% shorter in comparison with a bricked wall.

Wall modules with pre-installed technology, reduce time, labour and cost. Thanks to custom prefabrication, pipes, cables or heating technology can be integrated in the factory precisely, according to the customer’s specifications.

wedi walls: lightweight, quick to install solutions

Regardless of whether an existing wall needs new cladding, or a completely new shower or free-standing wall should be built: installation with wedi prefabricated modules saves the tradesperson a lot of time. Thanks to the sealing and technology being already integrated, laborious and critical work steps are transferred into the product system. This results in reduced interfaces between different trades on site, simplified material procurement and logistics, and easier storage and transport. Installation can be done by just one person which, in addition to reduced work steps and short drying times, likewise minimises the time required for project completion. Furthermore, it is also not possible for building moisture to occur with a dry construction solution, and when they are installed correctly, wedi guarantees the reliability of its products and systems.