Telescopic Panels reduce labour by 50% at Victoria Lane Apartments

The Victoria Lane Apartments in Wellington was one of the first large-scale projects in New Zealand to use our Telescopic Panels.

The contractors reported this groundbreaking solution took 50% less time to install, compared with what they had budgeted for using traditional stick framing with stud and track.   

Project Overview

·      100 high-end apartments over 12 floors

·      Multiple 2 - 4 bedroom layouts

·      67,000m of framing overall

·      50% less labour required compared with stick framing

To create more than 100 high-end apartments over 12 floors the contractor employed a three-stage approach, leveraging the versatility and speed of Telescopic Panels.

STEP 1 – Main corridor

First, acoustically rated corridor walls were installed. These walls consisted of 92mm top and bottom tracks with a deflection head and 63mm telescopic studs. The telescopic studs were staggered at 30mm centres and could be adjusted to reach the slab without remeasuring and cutting on site. 

STEP 2 – Inter-tenancy walls

Next, inter-tenancy walls were added using 63mm telescopic stud walls with a deflection header and 50mm air gap between them. The wall ends were also made horizontally telescopic to meet up with the outside of the structure and the corridor wall.

STEP 3 – Internal apartment walls

Finally, each apartment had the internal fixed height walls installed with a false ceiling. These walls were horizontally telescopic to extend out in between inter-tenancy walls and the exterior of the structure.

Online 3D models to help contractors onsite

RFS manufactured more than 6700 metres of framing for this project, which was flat packed and assembled onsite by the installation crew. Each component had a QR code printed on it that linked to a web-based viewer that hosted 3D models of every aspect of the job. By scanning the code, anyone onsite could easily see how each frame interacted, where they connected, and which way the bracing should go. 

The result was a faster and easier installation that required 50% less labour than traditional stick framing with stud and track.