Office Partitions Melbourne

A plasterboard partition is simple in principle and unforgiving in practice. Steel studs at set centres, board fixed both sides, joints taped and set, corners run straight and true.

The difference between a good partition and a poor one shows up months later, in the wave you see down a corridor under downlights, or the crack above a door head after the first hot summer.

We build partitions full height to the slab above, or to the ceiling line where the design allows, and finish to the level the job actually calls for. Most commercial work sits comfortably at a Level 4 finish. A Level 5 finish is worth paying for only where critical lighting rakes across a wall.

Office fit outs and shop fit outs run to a program, and usually to a landlord’s after-hours rules as well. We have completed projects in all major shopping centres across Melbourne and at Melbourne Airport, which teach you plenty about working clean, working nights and working around other trades in a live space.

Partition work on a typical fit out covers reception and boardroom walls, offices and meeting rooms, storerooms and fitting rooms, bulkheads and light troughs, plus the suspended ceilings that tie into the tops of those walls. One crew across the walls and the ceilings removes the usual argument about who owns the junction between them.

Everything above the frame depends on the frame. We use steel stud and track sized to the wall: 64mm and 76mm studs for standard office partitions, 92mm and wider where the wall is tall, carries services or needs a deeper acoustic cavity.

Stud centres, deflection head details and noggings for wall-mounted joinery or screens get sorted before the first sheet goes up, not after a plumber has cut through something.

Noise is the complaint we hear most in offices. A single-lined wall that stops at the ceiling grid lets sound travel straight over the top into the next room, which is why so many “private” meeting rooms are not private at all.

Real acoustic performance comes from a stack of small decisions: insulation in the cavity, double layers of board where needed, resilient framing, an acoustic sealant bead at every perimeter, and taking the wall to the slab instead of stopping at the ceiling. Get one wrong and the rating on paper stops meaning much on site

Where a partition separates tenancies, encloses an exit path or forms a shaft, it carries a fire resistance level set by the building requirements. Fire rated walls are tested assemblies: board type and thickness, fixing pattern, stud gauge, insulation and the sealing of every penetration all have to match the tested system exactly.

There is no room for improvisation. We record what we install so the certifier is not chasing paperwork at handover.

We walk the site or work from your plans, confirm wall types, heights and any ratings, then send a written quote with nothing hidden in it.

Frame and line. Studs set out and fixed, openings and services coordinated with the other trades, board fixed, insulated and sealed to the specified system.

Joints taped, coats built up and sanded, site cleaned, wall handed over ready for paint on the date we gave you.