Providing people with simpler home development solutions, backed up by quality systems to achieve top results, has always been a primary aim of South Australian property group Qattro.
“At Qattro, our quest is to make property dreams real, and we’re the only ones in Australia who’ve assembled all the critical development, construction and servicing divisions in one company through our trademarked Land2Living Advantage model,” explained Qattro’s Lead Architect and Design Studio Team Leader, George Sotiropoulos. “This gives us an integrated approach to project delivery which, I think, sets us apart from our competitors and gives us an unmatched advantage in the market place.”
The use of Hebel systems for floors and cladding has helped Qattro to ensure clients are happy with the quality of service and products that they provide in the medium to high density urban infill residential developments they design and build in South Australia and Queensland.
“We’ve been using Hebel almost from the time our business started,” said George. “We virtually jumped onto it from the beginning because we were so impressed with the systems. We began using it mainly as external cladding, and then decided to use it for floors in apartments as well, to help us deliver quality product that exceeds specification.”
Prospect apartments have the benefits of Hebel
Recently completed developments in which Qattro has used Hebel’s PowerPanelXL external wall system for cladding and the Hebel PowerFloor system include two four-storey apartment developments.
Modern and stylish, the apartments are designed to be low maintenance and affordable, ideal for first home buyers, investors or people who are downsizing.
And, like other Qattro developments, they offer the special benefits of Hebel for the apartment residents.
From the start, Qattro recognised the special benefits of Hebel in regard to its fire and acoustic properties.
“It not only meets the minimum standard, it goes further, which is an extra benefit for the purchasers and for the people living in those units,” said George. “It’s also quick to install, which is another benefit for the builder.
Hebel systems facilitate design work
“From the design perspective, particularly for our Prospect Rd Apartments, Hebel provided a lot more flexibility and versatility when compared to more traditional materials such as concrete or brick, particularly when you have multiple cantilevered elements” said George. “This is because the structural requirement in carrying façade elements is significantly less compared to concrete and brick facades, which are heavy elements to support and labour intensive to erect.
“So, compared to materials such as brick, the Hebel façade system opens up a lot more possibilities as to how you can design and how you can experiment with different forms and patterns on the façade of a building. It makes the projects work from a feasibility perspective in addition to all its other benefits.”
The use of Hebel PowerFloor systems has also enhanced the comfort and quality of residences such as the Prospect apartments.
“The Hebel flooring exceeds minimum code compliance in relation to acoustic and fire performance and makes our process a lot smoother,” said George.
“It gives the floors a much more solid feel compared to other materials which are more lightweight. It also provides a better acoustic outcome, especially in apartments. That is an important benefit for residents in terms of not having noise problems from surrounding units.”
And it is just one more reason, from Qattro’s point of view, for continuing to use Hebel systems.
“When we started building apartments we looked at using other more traditional materials such as concrete and brick, but time and cost of those materials were high, compared with Hebel,” said George.