Flexible living

Turnkey and rebuildable – the new “Flexliving” concept from construction specialists, Kulmer Bau GmbH & CoKG from Pischelsdorf (Steiermark, Austria). Modular residential units can be expanded as desired and can be adapted to the housing needs of students and even families.

From small to large – the individual modules are just under 30 m² and can be combined. The units are 95% prefabricated by Kulmer Bau in its Pischelsdorf factory. Consistent conditions, therefore no weathering influences on the assembly line, enable the exact timing of the individual production steps. Carpenters, roofing plumbers, installers, electricians, joiners, tilers and painters etc., carry out their work in coordination with each other. 

Finally, the modules are then brought to their new home on a low loader and assembled on site. The tiny houses or even the apartment buildings with several residential units are then ready for the interior decoration.

The client and the installer, HSE-team from Gleisdorf, worked together with the two Variotherm experts, Peter Unterrainer and Günter Grube, on the perfect heating concept. The result: the low profile VarioComp floor heating in drywall construction with a construction height of just 20 mm. Thanks to the prefabricated gypsum fibre boards, the panel heating has flexibility for installation and is quick to react. In tests, the drywall floor heating warms up 2.5 hours faster than screed heating. That shows that the modular floor heating system VarioComp achieves the desired surface temperature much quicker and that it can be better controlled. 

In the first step, two model modules were fabricated: in the double module, 50 m² floor heating was installed while 27 m² was installed in the single module. The VarioProFile pipe 11.6x1.5 Laser was installed meanderingly in the peripheral zones of the room and bifilar in the living areas. As a result, a somewhat higher surface temperature is generated in front of the glass panels. 

The connection to the heating pipes in the area where the modules connect needed a special solution. It was achieved with excess lengths and detachable connections in the floor construction. It was covered with an openable covering plus top covering.