Demountable walls have become a familiar sight in modern workplace design. Their flexibility, installation ease, acoustic control, aesthetic versatility and accelerated depreciation make them a natural choice for owners and compelling addition to the A&D toolkit.
Architects and designers who regularly specify demountable walls—aka architectural walls, partition walls and modular walls—understand the value they represent to post-pandemic workplace. Their adaptability aligns nicely with shifting business needs that may require huddle rooms one month and a team conference room the next.
These types of change are possible with demountable walls—all with minimal staff disruption, owner expense and facility manager stress. It’s flexibility and convenience that’s right for the times.
Designer-Only Story
Architect and design professionals oftentimes have their own reasons for choosing to specify demountable walls.
“They simply make your job easier,” explains Dima Daimi-Lewis, founder and principal of Michigan-based Provoke Design. The award-winning, architect-trained interior designer specializes in workplace and hospitality projects. Her collaborations with lead architects, general contractors, suppliers, owners and facility managers over the last 15 years reveal the product’s workflow advantages for design practitioners.
“Demountables are a key component for workplace design. Regardless, if I’m designing for a certain aesthetic or future-proofing a workplace, documentation is so much easier and streamlined,” the veteran designer says.
Daimi-Lewis walks through four reasons why she chooses to design with demountables:
1) Specification Made Easy. Daimi-Lewis says demountable walls help shortcut and streamline specification research and detail. “It’s no secret we have less time to work through design. Our fees are getting cut right and left,” Daimi-Lewis says “Why would I spend time on simple glazing details when I can focus that energy in ensuring the design components are properly getting detailed so they are priced and built correctly. It all comes back to time and maintaining focus on design intent. Specifying demountable walls is a no-brainer for me.”
The designer explains how the comparative simplicity of demountable walls,versus standard drywall or glass construction, places the documentation and detailing burden on the demountable wall manufacturer and/or dealer.
“If I’m looking at a glass wall, I’m constantly thinking about bracing and all the details that go with that. You have a header above it. Then the header needs to be braced,” Daimi-Lewis recounts. “With demountable walls, you’re just looking at a clip. You realize how much simpler that is. Plus, there’s no acoustic sacrifice or door detailing because that’s in a separate package.”
Daimi-Lewis understands how a demountable wall strategy might be initially difficult to adjust to initially. Demountable walls are, by definition, not permanently affixed to the structure.
“There’s a misconception demountable walls are too complicated, too detailed. They’re not that hard,” echoes Madison Gentry, sales enablement manager at Allsteel, a leading demountable wall innovator and manufacturer.
“Whatever complexity there is, the manufacturer has figured it out and removed it from the process,” she continues. “The architect and designer don’t have to worry about it.”
2) Budget Control. There are few things worse than to have a smart, buttoned-up workplace aesthetic blindsided by a compromising budget. Daimi-Lewis understands: “It’s frustrating for an architect to design a space that can’t be built because it is over budget. That is a lose-lose for the client and the architect—the client doesn’t get their project built and the architect doesn’t get to see their work built.”
Demountable walls take pricing uncertainty off the table. As a manufactured product, demountables are priced like a stock item, mitigating the cost variability of field-built wall construction, including labor and materials. A&D professionals specify demountables with confidence, knowing their design is protected from substantial pricing swings. “It empowers architects because they know the numbers prior to going to bid,” Daimi-Lewis adds. “There’s less mystery, less suspense.”
3) Change Order Constraint. Every project leader cringes at the thought of a change order. Who messed up? Why now? How much does this set us back in time and dollars? Daimi-Lewis says change orders are a demountable wall’s strongpoint. For example, if the owner changes his or her mind about wall placement, rather than face drywall demolition— and all the dust, noise and rebuild time that goes with it—the facility manager just arranges for the installer to redeploy the movable wall.
Daimi-Lewis recalls the time an unexpected owner change during a punch list walkthrough required wall placement to be modified. “Because the walls were demountable, the Allsteel furniture dealer was able to modify the layout for under $500,” the interior designer explains. “With traditional construction, you’d be fortunate to have a change order come in under $5,000 for the same scope, plus you would be subject to lead times and noise and dust disruption. On-the-fly modification flexibility is huge. With that one modification, the demountable walls paid for themselves.”
4) Sustainable. Demountable walls are LEED-friendly, ideal for companies looking to support circularity and better meet ESG goals. Allsteel’s Gentry affirms demountable walls are entirely recyclable. She not only points out the fact demountable walls aren’t landfill-bound like standard wall construction, but they’re much more environmentally responsible to manufacture.
“We recently commissioned a study that determined that the carbon and landfill impact of demountable walls is considerably less than the sourcing, fabrication, milling and transit of lumber and gypsum, for example. Demountable walls have built-in sustainability advantages. It’s a more environmentally responsible choice,” she reports.
For Daimi-Lewis and growing numbers of other architects and interior designers, the case for demountable walls goes far beyond functionality arguments: They’re also a designer’s best friend. “They make architecture easier,” she concludes. “Spend your time detailing elements that have real design impact, not glass walls.
“It’s faster and easier to take an hour or two overseeing drawings and providing feedback to a furniture dealer than to produce them yourself. Invest your time on delivering the best possible project that activates the human soul.”
Learn more about how demountable walls can make a big difference on your next project.
