If you’ve visited a construction site, you may have wondered how contractors can construct durable walls. Most people don’t know that there are specific types of walls for every construction project. If you’re interested in learning about the different wall types used in construction, we listed some of them here.
Load Bearing Walls
This type of wall supports structural elements such as walls, beams, and columns. Contractors can turn it into either an exterior or interior wall. Load-bearing walls are one of the first forms of construction walls. These walls are commonly-used for light construction methods known as “platform framing.” Moreover, there are different types of load-bearing walls:
Retaining Walls
Masonry Walls
Precast Concrete Walls
Stone Walls
Pre Panelized Load Bearing Metal Stud Walls
Engineering Brick Walls (115mm, 225mm)
Non-Load Bearing Walls
As indicated in its name, it is the opposite of load-bearing walls. These walls only carry their weight and do not support any structural members, including slabs and beams. Most of the time, contractors use non-load bearing walls as partition walls or create separation between rooms from the outside. You can also find that this wall has different types:
Facade Bricks
Hollow Concrete Blocks
Hollow Bricks
Brick Wall (115mm, 225mm)
Shear Walls
This wall can resist lateral force and construction load by an earthquake or strong winds. Shear walls usually are light-framed or braced wooden walls with reinforced concrete walls, reinforced masonry walls, shear panels, or steel plates. You can find shear walls in high-rise buildings since these areas typically experience seismic forces and lateral winds. They are either flanged in a section or flat, whereas the core walls comprise of channel sections. Lastly, they have sufficient stiffness and strength to control lateral displacements.
Light Partition Walls
Since they are lightweight, using them for construction is relatively quick, and they do not have to lay on pre-planned beams. It also means light partition walls allow for great flexibility in layouts instead of more massive masonry walls. The reason why contractors can quickly construct these is that it doesn’t use any cement or water. You can even build this in the middle of the night without causing too much disturbance around the neighborhood. Some contractors also prefer to call these drywall partitions.
Once the walls are up, the next thing to do is add several building components behind surfaces such as electrical wirings and pipes. Usually, maintenance personnel needs access to these components to do some work. It is why building owners install wall access doors and panels. You can get them by calling Best Access Doors.
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