Jackson DigneyDirector, Enduro Builders · Passive House Builder | Director, Enduro Builders

Building done Right | The Power of Small Details

23 Oct 2025 · 2 min

Watch on YouTube

1:30

In this segment, a builder from Enduro explains the common practice of constructing partial-height bathroom nib walls entirely from timber and the associated risks: movement of the wall top, compromised waterproofing, and cracked tiles when the wall is impacted. He argues that relying on finishes (linings, tiles) to stiffen the wall is insufficient. Enduro’s solution is to install steel posts bolted to the concrete slab and fully welded, creating a rigid, movement‑free structure that lasts the building’s lifetime. The speaker emphasizes that this modest extra cost dramatically improves durability and longevity of the home, illustrating Enduro’s focus on small, high‑impact construction details.

Chapters

A lot of homeowners want to have nib walls in their bathrooms, particularly ones that don't go full height. In the case of this bathroom, this nib wall is just separating where the toilet and the vanity are. What a lot of builders will do is just put a wall in and build it all in timber, and that can mean that the top of the wall here can come loose and can get going. The argument often is that the linings that go on and the Tiles, and like once all of those finishes are on, that, that stiffens the wall up. But there's still a pretty high risk that if it cops a big hit, that you can then have failure of your waterproofing systems, cracked tiles, a whole bunch of things. And for a really small extra expense, you do what we do, which is we put in these steel posts. And because the steel posts are bolted into the slab and they're obviously fully welded steel structure, it ensures that there is absolutely no movement in this, and that'll be the case for the life of the building. It's just the difference between relying on finishes to put some stiffness into the wall and actually making the structure work the way it should from the get-go. And that's just one of the little things that we do at Enduro to make sure that your home lasts a lot longer than all of us.