Description

Townhouses and apartment buildings are here to stay, but we need to design and build them to far higher standards than we do now. In part 1 of a new series looking at designing and building medium-density housing, we look at inter-tenancy walls.

Medium-density housing (MDH) has one major design difference from stand-alone housing – the need for inter-tenancy walls (ITWs). Never think of these as just another wall because they have special requirements.

Scope

In this article:

• What is an inter-tenancy wall?
• Construction and material options
• Legal boundary with joint responsibility
• Design wall to remain standing
• Treat entire assembly as a legal entity
• Avoid penetrations
• Aim for better acoustic rating