Ytong in multi-family housing
Why Ytong is used as separating walls, and how it works alongside a timber frame.
What is Ytong?
Ytong is a brand of aerated concrete — a building material made of cement, lime, sand and water, cast with a leavening agent that gives it characteristic air pores. The result is a stone material that's light, fireproof and has good sound-insulating properties.
Why Ytong in housing?
In multi-family buildings the apartment-separating walls are among the most critical constructions. They have to resist fire, achieve sound class B between apartments, and withstand mechanical wear for the building's lifetime. Ytong solves all three with the same material — without complex layered build-ups.
- Fire — Ytong is non-combustible (A1). A 100 mm wall typically achieves EI 90 or better.
- Sound — weight and porosity give good sound reduction. We reach sound class B with no additional measures in typical separating walls.
- Thermal mass — the heavy material evens out temperature swings and improves indoor climate.
- Durability — the material ages well, is moisture-tolerant and needs no special cladding.
Combination with timber
In our hybrid frames we let Ytong do what timber struggles with — and vice versa. Timber is used for floors, outer walls and roofs where low weight gives the greatest gain. Ytong is used for apartment-separating walls and stair-core walls where sound, fire and thermal mass are critical. The result is a frame that is both light and quiet.
What it isn't
Ytong is not a load-bearing frame material for tall buildings in the same way as concrete or mass timber. In our systems Ytong is used as non-load-bearing separating walls within a load-bearing timber frame.