Frequently Asked Questions

• XFrame parts are plywood – a mix of 12mm, 17/18mm and 21mm depending on the structural requirements (subject to regional availability).

• Australia, New Zealand Projects: Radiata pine is New Zealand and Australia’s most widely grown plantation timber. New Zealand harvests more than 30 million cubic meters annually (with 495 million cubic meters of volume standing at any one time). With more seedlings being planted today than ever before, and a growth time of between 18 and 25 years, the long-term availability of Pinus radiata-based timber products is secure. Refer to this document for further information about the raw material.

• The United Kingdom and Europe: C-Grade Class 1 WISA Spruce Plywood in 12mm, 18mm and 21mm thicknesses is commonly used to create the structural frame. If additional strength is required some 21mm CC grade Birch plywood members may be introduced.

• United States / Canadian Projects: Canadian Softwood Plywood (CSP) comprising of a mixture of douglas-fire, spruce, pine and fir or Southern Yellow Pine plywood (CDX/CCX) are used to create the structural frame. 1/2" (12mm) and 3/4" (18mm) thickness are most commonly used (metric sheet thicknesses replace imperial nominal thicknesses and are cross-checked prior to production).

• Generally, follow a standard 600mm planning module when drawing out spaces and/or setting wall heights. When turning corners this module can either have no modular offset, or start outside the line of the wall. We also have a Revit family for the XFrame system – as well as many CAD drawings and pre-built models. Please contact us or visit our downloads page to learn more.

  If you are yet to find the information you need please do not hesitate to get in touch with the XFrame team. Jump over to the contact page to send us a message.

• The price per m2 will depend on the manufacturing costs locally and the supply cost of the raw plywood products. We have independent quantity surveying estimates that show the system to be priced competitively to other prefabricated and modular construction solutions. Please get in touch if you would like to learn more.

Internal lining material options very flexible. We like to see sustainable, durable and reusable products used such ZeroE (Strawboard), SaveBOARD, Strandboard (made from waste wood products), FSC certified high quality plywood and/or acoustic materials with high recycled contents. Plasterboard (drywall) can be fixed if required, however, this limits deconstruction and recovery potential.

We will prefabricate all sheet lining products to match XFrame wall panels as required (excluding plasterboard). These pre-finished and pre-cut linings are then fixed to the XFrame panels using a supplied hidden reversible pressure clip. The combination of pre-cut linings and reversible fixings makes deconstruction effortless and means linings can be installed quickly with extreme precision.

For the hidden panel fixings we offer four options that are fit for reuse:

• Our own in-house hidden lift-off clip (XF010). These emulate a french-cleat and work with holes milled in the XFrame system and a coresponding under-cut in lining materials. Learn more here.

• Ready-Clips™ are a demountable fastener system for acoustic finishes and highly suited to use with the XFrame system. Ready-Clips comprise of a male and female clip component that allows flush demountable fixing of any PET acoustic panel.

• The X-Clip system has been developed in conjunction with DBSORB to allow screw-free fixing of Male ReadyClips to frame components. This snap-on clip is used extensively in XFrame false ceilings and in XFrame Quiet Wall range products.

• In select locations we also adopt the Fastmount system. This is a great hidden fixing system that is very durable and suitable for many reuse cycles.

XFrames acoustic performance is determined almost entirely by the lining specification. One of the main advantages of XFrame is the easily demountable linings and so we are very conscious of compromising this with additional layers to improve acoustic performance. Demountable linings generally require an exposed joint at regular intervals (such as a shadow gap) to aid in deconstruction. This has a negative impact on acoustic performance. We also strongly advise against the use of plasterboard as it cannot be demounted without creating waste. 

• Our most common wall specification: 92mm frame with cavity insulation and 1x 16mm dense lining each side achieves a tested STC rating of 46. Read more here.

• Our base partition wall specification: 92mm frame, 50mm AAB high density polyester insulation, 12mm timber sheet linings on pressure clips to both sides, achieves an STC of 39.

• Higher acoustic transmission control ratings can be achieved by adding additional mass to the wall, typically via secondary linings (additional layers of 12mm material) or via flexible acoustic barriers.

• The system works on 3 scales – parts, panels and walls. Panels can be built from parts and clipped together to make walls. These can be easily and quickly separated back into individual panels as needed, many times. If you want to change the panel's shape, you can pull the individual parts off the panel and rearrange them or introduce new parts to form a panel of a new height or shape. The parts and panels are good for multiple use cycles.

We have modified the mortise and tenon connections to take advantage of the dimensional stability of the longitudinal span direction of plywood – and the variability of the materials thickness. The effectiveness of this approach as been tested and validated in sub-zero (-5 degrees Celsius) (Central Otago, New Zealand) and high humidity (85%) (Auckland, New Zealand) climates. We allow +0.8mm in the thickness of each plywood joint to allow for up to 7% variation in material thickness (thickness variations resulting from moisture related expansion and/or manufacturing variances). In the longitudinal direction plywood is extremely dimensionally stable (moisture related expansion <0.35% - less than 0.042mm for 12mm plywood). Because of this our mortise design’s are set at a 0mm off-set. This results in a firm, reliable connection regardless of the ambient weather conditions.