A tenant that asks for sustainable materials often has to show afterwards what went into the fitout, in its own reporting or a rating submission. That evidence is gathered product by product, mostly from the walls and ceilings, and it only stands up when the product installed is the one whose documents were approved.
The steel framing, plasterboard, ceiling tiles, glass, paint and sealant on a partitioned floor each arrive with their own declarations and certificates, or with none. On site the choices that matter are keeping existing material where the new plan can use it, ordering to size so less is cut off and thrown away, reading the data sheet for the exact product rather than the brand, and filing the papers for what went in.
Declarations, Ecolabels and Brochure Claims
An environmental product declaration, or EPD, is an independently verified report of a product's life-cycle impacts, such as the greenhouse gas emitted in making and transporting it, prepared to ISO 14025 and EN 15804. The figures are set out stage by stage, from raw materials and manufacture through delivery and installation to removal at the end of the product's life. It reports those figures and does not say the product is better than another, so any comparison is left to whoever reads both.
An ecolabel makes a judgement instead. A certifier assesses the product against its own criteria and issues a certificate listing the named products it covers, and the certifier's register shows whether that certificate is current. A brochure that calls a board or tile eco-friendly, with no declaration or certificate behind it, gives the client nothing to file.
Clients most often ask for these documents when a sustainable office fitout is going for a Green Star Fitouts or WELL rating. Without a rating, the same papers are what a tenant can point to when it reports on the fitout.
Steel Studs, Track and Ceiling Framing
The framing behind a plasterboard wall and above a suspended ceiling is light-gauge galvanised steel, rolled into studs, track and the hangers and rails that carry a ceiling. Framing makers publish EPDs that cover their profiles and clips by part number, so the figures for a wall are read from the parts that make it up.
An EPD is issued for a set period and carries an expiry date. A framing EPD copied into a specification some years earlier may have lapsed by the time the job is built, so we check the current entry on the EPD register before it goes into the handover file.
Studs can be ordered cut to length, and we order them to the height of each wall so the offcut pile stays small. Where an existing wall sits on a line the new plan can use, we can keep the frame and its lining, patch and repaint it, and leave it standing rather than build it again. Steel offcuts, track cut out for new doorways, trimmed ceiling grid and any framing we strip out are kept apart from other waste and go to a scrap metal recycler.
Plasterboard Sheets and Offcuts
Plasterboard is a gypsum core faced with paper, and it lines both faces of the plasterboard partitions and bulkheads we build. Within one maker's range, recycled content differs from board to board and only some lines carry an ecolabel. We take the recycled content from the data sheet or EPD for the exact board on the drawings, such as a fire-rated board in a rated wall or a moisture-resistant board behind a sink.
A range EPD is often built on one representative board and lists the other boards it covers. We check that every board type in the wall schedule is on that list, because a board left off it has no figures in that document.
Plasterboard comes in a range of sheet lengths, and we order sheets to suit the ceiling height so most go up in one piece. Clean offcuts go in their own bin, apart from screws, timber and packaging, because a gypsum recycler takes only clean board. When a floor is stripped before the new walls go up, the board de-sheeted from the old walls goes in the same bin and the rest of the strip-out waste is sorted by material on the floor.
Ceiling Grid and Tiles
In many leased offices the grid and tiles of the suspended ceilings belong to the base building, and the new fitout works within them. Tiles lifted for cabling or trimmed around a new wall are stacked and refitted, and only broken tiles are replaced, matched to the same tile line so the edge and face sit level with the rest.
Where a room does not need a wall to the slab for sound or fire separation, we can stop the wall at the underside of the ceiling. The grid stays whole above it, so the wall can come out at the next layout change with little ceiling work.
Our ceiling tile selection starts with sound absorption, access and moisture, and the environmental papers are compared within that shortlist. Tile makers publish EPDs, emission test results and ecolabel certificates for named product lines, and a similar tile in the same catalogue may not be covered. We check the certificate's status on the certifier's register as well, since a certificate can be listed as under renewal.
Glass Partitions and Reused Panels
A glazed office front is toughened or laminated glass held in aluminium frames or channels. Some partition suites and door systems now have their own EPDs, issued system by system, and we collect the documents for the suite on the drawings when the glass is ordered.
Existing glass can often stay. When the new plan keeps the line of existing glass partitions, we can leave them standing and build the new rooms off them. Toughened glass is cut and drilled before it is heat-treated, and it cannot be altered afterwards. Where we move panels into a different layout, the new openings are drawn around the panels on hand.
New panels are made to size from our site measure, so a glass front leaves almost no glass offcut on the floor. The aluminium trims and channel cut on site go into the scrap metal cage with the steel.
Paint, Jointing Compound and Sealants
VOCs, or volatile organic compounds, are carbon-based chemicals that evaporate into the air at room temperature, and wet products give them off as they dry. On walls and ceilings the wet products are the paint and primer, the jointing compound that fills the board joints, the acoustic sealant run along the wall edges and the adhesive under some trims. We can specify a low-VOC version of each, including the sealant and compound that end up hidden behind the paint.
Low-VOC ranges carry their certificates and VOC figures product by product, so the ceiling flat, the wall finish and the enamel for door frames each have their own. Where a rating is targeted, paint, primer, general sealant and acoustic sealant usually each have a separate VOC limit, and we check each data sheet against its own line.
Paint is ordered against the wall and ceiling areas on the drawings, so few tins are left over. Part-used tins of the final colours stay with the tenant, labelled with the product and colour, so a scuffed wall can be touched up later from the same tin instead of being repainted end to end.
Carpet Tiles Lifted and Relaid
At a refit or a make good, the carpet tiles already on the floor can often stay. Tiles laid on a pressure-sensitive adhesive or adhesive tabs peel up and go back down, with a fresh tab under each tile that is lifted. We lift a few at the walk-through to see how the floor was laid, because tiles bedded firmly in adhesive can tear at the backing when they come up.
When a wall comes out, the strip of floor under it needs filling. Tiles from a different manufacturing batch can differ slightly in colour, so we can use spare tiles from the original cartons where the tenant still has them, since the carton label shows the batch. Where new walls go in over existing carpet, we can lift tiles along the wall line so the track fixes to the slab, then cut them back to the finished wall and leave the rest of the floor as it is.
Swaps, Expiry Dates and the Handover File
Products get swapped between specification and site when stock runs short or a supplier offers an equivalent at a better price. On a general wall a different board may perform the same, and the brand named in a quote often stands for the board type. The environmental documents do not move across with it, because an EPD or certificate belongs to the product it names.
Two EPDs also compare fairly only when they were prepared under the same product category rules, the method set for that type of product. Before we accept a swap, we ask for the substitute's own data sheet, EPD or certificate and send them to the designer or project manager running the brief, so the change is approved on its documents as well as its price. Swaps are easier to settle before anything is ordered, so we raise any change of board, tile or paint when the orders are placed.
At handover the file holds data sheets with VOC figures, EPDs with their expiry dates and certificates checked on the certifier's register, each for a product that was installed. Delivery dockets show which boards and tiles arrived on site, and the recycler's dockets show where the clean offcuts went.
When a brief asks for sustainable walls and ceilings, we can price each wall and ceiling type against the documents for its exact products and hand over a file that matches what we installed.
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