The Challenge
A commercial fitout company specified a full-height reception feature wall in large-format sintered porcelain, with book-matched panels flowing from the wall onto the reception desk. The wall was 6.4 metres wide and 3.1 metres high, and the main challenge was logistics — the panels are 3200 x 1600 mm and weigh over 90 kg each. The building had freight elevator restrictions and the installation floor was level 8, so getting the panels into the space without chipping an edge required careful planning. The other challenge was that the existing wall was a stud frame with plasterboard, not a solid substrate, which limited what adhesive could be used.
Our Approach
We worked backwards from the delivery day. We measured the elevator dimensions and stairwell turns before we cut the panels, to confirm that full-size 3200 mm panels could physically reach the 8th floor. They could not — the elevator was too short — so we modified the panel layout to use 1600 mm wide panels that could turn in the elevator, while still maintaining the book-match pattern. For the substrate issue, we specified cement backing board screwed to the studs before tiling, giving us a rigid surface that could support the weight of the large porcelain panels. We fabricated the reception desk cladding in our workshop, pre-drilling fixing points so on-site installation was mostly mechanical fixing rather than adhesive.
Installation
We scheduled the install outside business hours to avoid disrupting the building's other tenants. A team of four handled the panel lifting. Panels were set on adjustable battens for fine-tuning plumb, then fixed with a combination of mechanical brackets and adhesive. The book-match was aligned on site using temporary reference marks we had prepared from the slab scan. The reception desk cladding was delivered as pre-assembled sections and lifted into place as units.
The Result
The client received a sleek, monolithic reception wall where the veining flows continuously across every panel. The porcelain surface is highly stain-resistant, which matters in a high-traffic commercial environment. The fitout company has since used us on two further commercial projects.