Walls made of large wooden blocks. Will this be accepted in Poland?

A German startup from Stuttgart has developed a micro-modular system for constructing walls from massive wooden blocks – the so-called BRIQs.

For the production of blocks, only cheap wood damaged by pests (e.g. bark beetles), felled by wind or poor-quality industrial wood that would normally be burned is used. The system works like giant Lego blocks and speeds up work on the construction site.

A single-family house in Klötze, Germany, with an area of ​​320 m2, was built by a four-person team in just 14 days. About 2,900 ready-made BRIQs were used for its construction.

Wooden blocks in two sizes. They can be set manually

Solid wood blocks weighing 17-25 kg are precisely cut by robots and joined on site without the use of any glue or mortar – only with beech dowels.

According to the manufacturer – TRIQBRIQ – it is a micro-modular technology, because individual blocks can be moved and positioned manually, and the wall is assembled directly on the construction site. Subsequent layers of blocks are mechanically connected.

BRIQ is made of shorter sections of coniferous wood scantlings, which are laid in three intersecting directions and connected with notched pins. According to the documentation, the share of spruce or pine wood is approximately 93.5 percent, and the remaining 6.5 percent. falls on beech pegs. It is wood without chemical impregnation, dried to a specific humidity.

For the production of blocks, you can use thinning wood, wood damaged by storms or insects, short sections made in sawmills and recovered construction wood if it meets the quality requirements. The price for 1 m2 of surface made of blocks is approximately EUR 210-240, i.e. PLN 909-1,040.

The wall can be dismantled and the wooden blocks recovered. Important additional insulation

The manufacturer offers two basic variants of the block system:

• WS25 is intended primarily for making load-bearing and external walls. A standard block measures 50 x 25 x 25 cm.

• WS15 creates a massive internal wall 15 cm thick. Available elements dimensions: 25 cm x 25 or 50 cm x 15 cm.

The elements are arranged staggered and then locked with beech pins passing between adjacent modules. This creates a massive wooden wall. Screws, anchors and steel fittings are needed, among others, to connect walls with the foundation, ceiling and roof, and in multi-story buildings to connect subsequent floors. Ready-made brick walls can also be dismantled and recovered if necessary.

Wooden blocks alone are not enough to keep a house or apartment warm – additional insulation from the outside is necessary. From the side of the rooms, the wood can be a decoration itself or it can be covered with plaster. Electrical cables can be routed in previously milled grooves and holes.

Comparison of prices for a house made of hollow bricks and bricks. A slight difference?

The manufacturer does not publish a fixed price list for the system. The cost estimate is prepared individually. The average cost of building a house in the TRIQBRIQ system (from XXL wooden blocks) in a turnkey version is on average from EUR 2,500 to EUR 3,500 (approximately PLN 10,700 – PLN 15,000) per 1 m2 of gross usable area.

For comparison: the cost of building 1 m2 of usable area of ​​a house made of hollow bricks (using brick technology) is on average from PLN 3,700 to PLN 4,500 in the closed shell state, from PLN 5,000 to PLN 6,500 in the developer’s state, and from PLN 6,500 to PLN 9,000 in turnkey finishing.