Multi-residential

Establishing sustainable, healthy, and comfortable apartment and townhouse environments

More Australians, including families with children, are calling multi-residential style places home. According to the 2021 Census, around 30% of the population now lives in apartments and townhouses, with the latter rising consistently over the past decade.

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Affordability and the desire to be closer to work, transport, and other amenities, has seen the demand for apartment and townhouse living rise.

With thermal and acoustic comfort high on the priority of residents, building designers need to accommodate these needs and deal with the challenges created by higher density living.

Using our range of sustainable insulation materials – in walls and ceilings, under floors and roofs, around building services, and in and around the HVAC – we help designers build more comfortable townhouse and apartment environments.

How insulation helps to create better multi-residential environments

The existence of party walls leads to more intrusive noise between apartments or townhouses. As well as noise through adjoining walls, sound from above and below commonly disturbs residents. Insulation helps dampen noise between homes.

Insulation is an essential ingredient of a thermally comfortable residence. It supports a higher energy efficiency rating and thermal performance under the Nationwide House Energy Rating Scheme (NatHERS). In turn, a higher energy efficient rating helps attract buyers, renters, and investors to well-designed multi-residential developments.

With around 24% of Australia’s overall electricity use and 12% of total carbon emissions produced by residential buildings, insulation helps manage a home’s thermal environment. A well-insulated building reduces the need for energy-hungry heating and cooling appliances and cutting power bills.

At Fletcher Insulation we’ll help you specify the optimal insulation solutions for use in your multi-level residential building projects. We provide solutions that contribute to creating:

  • a healthier indoor environment for people to live in.
  • reduced energy solutions to control costs and environmental impact.
  • higher Green-Star ratings and WELL certification.
  • safe, fire-resistant construction systems.

Embracing a holistic approach to the health and wellbeing of people living in multi-residential buildings

As our urban areas grow, multi-residential buildings offer a more affordable, sustainable style of housing for many Australians. But these types of buildings create different challenges.

Both airborne and structure-borne noise can disturb residents and diminish their quality of life. Poor sound insulation in party walls, floors, and ceilings can cause stress for residents when noise from neighbouring townhouses or apartments disturbs sleep. For families with children, the noise from children playing can disturb others, creating challenges for parents and tension between neighbours.2 Noise from internal building services, such as lifts, air-conditioning, and plumbing, threatens to be a constant source of irritation for residents.

Designing for thermal comfort and good indoor air quality can be challenging for designers, especially for individual apartments in high rise complexes. Orientation, glazing and proximity to the roof are some key factors that come into play. Keeping windows closed for thermal comfort can lead to CO2 concentrations above 1,000 ppm, which has a significant impact on human health and cognition. Thermal comfort can also be a safety issue in high rise buildings. Without it, residents tend to open their windows to regulate the air temperature, creating falls hazards especially for young children.

Whether you’re designing a townhouse complex or a multi-storey apartment building, the challenge for architects is to create comfortable living conditions with cost-effective solutions.

The importance of acoustic comfort

To create the best conditions for people to live in, all homes should be designed for people’s acoustic comfort.

There’s plenty of research proving that environmental noise pollution adversely impacts people’s health and wellbeing. Not only is it annoying, but excessive noise also disturbs people’s sleep, and can lead to cognitive impairment. There’s also good evidence it’s associated with increased blood pressure and heart disease.

Whether the source is external (such as from traffic, construction, and machinery) or internal (air conditioners, plumbing, loud music, and floor impact noise from neighbouring tenancies), noise leads to poor sound quality within the home. This can make it difficult to understand speech or enjoy music, and result in overall discomfort.

In multi-residential properties, a lack of acoustic privacy can lead to conflict between neighbours and impact an individual’s psychological wellbeing.

Fletcher Insulation creates insulation products based on the principal that good design supports the health and wellbeing of all people in our community.

Controlling indoor thermal comfort, air quality and building condensation

For apartment dwellers, temperature is ranked as the second most important of the top four factors indoor environment quality (IEQ) after light. The other two are noise and air quality.

Nevertheless, dwellings have often been described by residents as being ‘too cold in winter’ and ‘too hot in summer’ with the thermal comfort of individual units varying considerably. The energy efficiency provisions in the National Construction Code (NCC) 2022 set out to address this, with an increase in the minimum energy rating for individual units in apartments.

A well-managed indoor environment supports the wellbeing of its occupants. Living in a home that’s thermally comfortable and has a healthy indoor air quality, is essential to support a good quality of life.

It also helps contain energy costs and avoids excessive emissions caused by artificial heating or cooling systems.

The key to Fletcher Insulation’s approach is to devise a project specific solution for designers and developers of multi-residential building projects, aligned with NCC requirements.

We offer a range of insulation solutions that help reduce the reliance on artificial cooling and heating systems and improve indoor air quality in townhouse and apartments. Working with some of the country’s leading building designers, we’ve supplied products for many multi-residential projects.

Protecting people and buildings from fire

Fire-safe homes protect both people and property. For designers of apartments and townhouses, it means selecting building materials that keep people safe.

Best practice passive fire protection strategies work by isolating a fire and protecting residents should a fire break out in an adjoining apartment. They also mitigate both property and equipment damage.

Insulation installed in external and internal walls, floors, ceilings, roofs, and around HVAC applications, is an integral part of fire safety control within any residential building.

As well as National Construction Code compliance, designers, developers and builders must also consider the standards and minimum requirements of insurers. Choosing insulation that fails to meet these specifications could mean higher insurance premiums.

Using Fletcher Insulation’s glasswool products in external cladding and internal partition applications ensures your building complies with AS/NZS 1530.1 for combustibility.

Fletcher Insulation has developed a range of rigorously tested insulation solutions. Made of sustainable, non-combustible or low flammability materials, our products are designed to keep people and buildings safe.

Whatever the specific challenge of your building design, our expert team are on-hand to help you select the best fire-safe solutions for your building project.

For the good of the planet

As climate change continues to make an impact, people are looking for ways to conserve their energy usage and limit their energy costs.

Insulation delivers on energy-efficiency, cutting household costs and emissions. It also creates more comfortable, liveable environments for people in multi-residential buildings.

Fletcher Insulation continues to invest in sustainable manufacturing processes. We are working to reduce the carbon footprint of the built environment by:

  • making insulation with zero Ozone Depletion Potential (ODP).
  • ensuring our insulation products support healthy indoor air quality – our products contain no harmful levels of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs).
  • using recycled materials in our manufacturing process wherever possible. Up to 80% of the glass used in our glasswool insulation is recycled – by transforming a waste product, we avoid further landfill pollution.

Insulation Benefits

Thermal Performance

Maximising the Fletcher Insulation thermal performance advantages

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Acoustic Performance

Elevating quality of life with acoustic excellence

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Condensation Management

Supporting you in condensation management

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Energy Efficiency

Driving better building energy efficiency across Australia

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Protection from Elements

Protecting structures, enhancing comfort and supporting good indoor air quality

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Fire Performance

Protecting people and buildings from fire

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Indoor Air Quality

Facilitating good indoor air quality (IAQ) with Fletcher Insulation

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Applications

Roofing

Effective roof insulation will help reduce noise disturbance and provide a protective thermal, condensation control, and fire-resistant layer.

Fletcher Insulation has a comprehensive range of insulation solutions to meet the most demanding performance requirements for different types of multi-residential buildings.

  • We recommend the Permastop® range of building blankets for low-rise, metal-roofed apartments and townhouses. Made from 80% recycled materials, Permastop® products offer outstanding thermal and acoustic properties.They reduce heat transfer and minimise internal reverberation and distracting external noise, such as rain on a metal roof. They also minimise the risk of condensation forming under metal roof cladding.
  • In tiled-roof townhouses, Sisalation® Multipurpose EHD (456) is an effective insulating layer. Working as a flexible, vapour and water barrier, this excellent insulation roof sarking product is also suitable for wall applications. Provides a second layer of protection from water ingress to the building, in both roof and wall applications.

In taller high rise apartments, concrete is commonly used as the primary roofing material.

  • For multi-residential buildings with a concrete roof structure, your best choice is Pink® Thermal Slab. With exceptional thermal and acoustic absorption properties, this product drives energy efficiency and helps control noise and temperature fluctuations common to concrete roofs. Codemark certified providing confidence and certainty through the issue of a Certificate of Conformity, demonstrating ‘evidence of suitability’ requirements of the National Construction Code, Pink® Thermal Slab provides excellent fire performance for ceiling lining applications, achieving a AS 5637.1 Group 1 NCC fire classification.
  • In applications where visual appeal of the roof lining is not required, we also recommend the Permastop® range for insulating buildings with a concrete roof Permastop offers overall energy efficiency, keeping buildings cooler in summer and warmer in colder climates.

Fletcher Insulation has a comprehensive range of insulation solutions to meet the most demanding performance requirements for all types of multi-residential buildings.

By specifying products from the Fletcher Insulation range, not only will you help protect your building from structural damage down the track, you’ll create comfortable living spaces where people live and thrive.

More details in PRODUCTS.

External Walls

Insulation in external walls delivers on energy efficiency and cost savings. It’s effective at regulating thermal conditions within the building, and meeting stringent fire performance requirements.

As well as addressing thermal comfort and energy efficiency, insulation helps dampen intrusive external noise, contributing to a peaceful home environment for apartment and townhouse dwellers.

Townhouses and apartments with up to three storeys are commonly made with timber or steel stud frames.In these constructions, we recommend Australian-made Pink® Wall Batts. Made from bio-soluble glasswool, this proven insulation product is non-combustible and offers excellent thermal and acoustic performance. It also features a comprehensive range of R-values, densities, and thicknesses, and includes up to 80% recycled content.

When you’re looking for superior acoustic performance, choose Pink® Soundbreak®. Not only does Pink® Soundbreak® reduce sound transfer from both the external environment and between adjacent rooms, it also has excellent thermal qualities.

Typically, townhouses and apartments up to three storeys use brick veneer and/or lightweight cladding, both of which require a building membrane as part of the external wall system.

For colder climate zones Sisalation® Residential Vapawrap® Wall Wrap is recommended to protect the build and help manage condensation. It allows moisture vapour inside the structure to escape, and assists in minimising drafts, enabling build insulation to perform more effectively.

For double-brick construction, Sisalation® Foam Cell Multipurpose is recommended where it is suitable and permitted. This extra heavy duty 3-in-1 multipurpose building membrane performs as insulation, a thermal break and a vapour barrier.

For other climate zones and applications, the Fletcher Insulation Technical team can assist architects and specifiers with the right building membrane for the project.

Apartments built with more than four storeys are typically made of concrete with a steel stud framing system. To provide effective thermal and acoustic insulation for these buildings, we recommend Pink® Partition insulation. Designed for metal-framed partitions, Pink® Partition insulation is available in a range of dimensions to suit standard steel stud sizes. Australian-made Pink® Partition insulation meets National Construction Code (NCC) performance requirements for energy efficiency, sound insulation, and fire resistance.

All glasswool insulation suitable for external walls is Codemark certified providing confidence and certainty through the issue of a Certificate of Conformity, demonstrating ‘evidence of suitability’ requirements of the National Construction Code.

More details in PRODUCTS.

Ceilings

Acoustic insulation for ceilings in a multi-level building helps keep the peace between neighbours and dampens the noise caused by HVAC and services pipes.

In townhouses and low rise apartments, Pink® Ceiling Batts are a popular choice to manage both sound and internal temperature.Lightweight, flexible, and resilient, they’re a non-combustible glasswool insulation product made from up to 80% recycled content. Pink® Ceiling Batts maintain their firmness over time, ensuring they remain in place and maintain optimum thermal performance.

For apartments with four or more levels and depending on thermal requirements of your project, we recommend Pink® Partition insulation. Pink® Partition insulation is specially designed for installation in multi-storey buildings with concrete floors and suspended ceilings. With its exceptional thermal and acoustic performance, this product helps create a comfortable, energy-efficient home.

More details in PRODUCTS.

Party/Intertenancy Walls & Services

Fletcher Insulation’s products are ideal for use within party and intertenancy walls. They help reduce the noise and regulate the thermal conditions inside each apartment or townhouse. They’re also an effective fire safety barrier between tenancies.

When building party walls for townhouses and low rise apartments with a timber or steel stud frame construction, use Pink® Wall Batts.

For multi-story apartments of four or more floors and constructed with walls featuring a steel stud frame, specify Pink® Partition insulation. It’s National Construction Code (NCC) compliant for energy efficiency, fire safety, and acoustic and thermal performance. Pink® Partition is available in densities of 11, 14, 24 and 32kg/m3 to fit standard steel stud spacings.

Acting as both a noise barrier as well as a noise absorber, Soundlag 4525C is an excellent insulation product for reducing noise break-out from pipes, valves, fan housings, and ductwork in multi-residential buildings. With its external foil facing layer, Soundlag 4525C is also an excellent fire-resistant barrier.

More details in PRODUCTS.

The Right Installation Matters

A well-insulated building is the cornerstone of achieving effective and sustainable energy efficiency levels. It’s essential to focus on ensuring that products and services are installed correctly to deliver their promised long term benefits.

For the Good of the Planet

We’re driven by a deep commitment to passionately create a better world through insulation and innovation, all delivered with simplicity.

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Resources

Brochure – Multi-residential – Building Better Living Spaces

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Whitepaper – Insulation Solutions for Multi-Residential Buildings

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Brochure – Pink® Partition

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Brochure – Permastop® Product

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Brochure – Roof Razor® Insulation Spacer

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Catalogue – Commercial & Roofing

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