Apartments · United States
US apartment program
One repeated spec across unit types, staged floor by floor.
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APARTMENT BLOCK, GERMANY - ORDERED 2024
Thirteen apartments fitted out on one order.
A German apartment block of thirteen units, each with its own kitchen, bedroom closet, TV cabinet and storage room - plus the doors, flooring, sanitaryware, lighting, curtains and loose furniture, bought as one package instead of eight separate suppliers.
Multi-unit · Germany · 2024 · Apartment programs
The brief
Thirteen units, thirteen type drawings, one container schedule.
This is not a house with a big kitchen. It is thirteen separate flats under one owner, and each one had a different plan: a type-1 unit is not a type-7 unit, and the storage room in a corner flat is not the storage room in a through flat. The order was quoted as thirteen types rather than thirteen identical sets, which is the difference between a repeated-unit program and a genuinely custom one.
What made it hard
A repeated spec only works if the type drawings are frozen first.
The failure mode in multi-unit work is not the cabinetmaking - it is the variation. If unit 4 gets a different hinge and unit 9 gets a different plinth height, the building loses its consistency and the maintenance kit doubles. Here the thirteen types were drawn and locked before production, then crated by unit number so the fitters could open one palette per flat instead of sorting a mixed container on the landing.
A kitchen at 2,400mm, in the same board as the closets.
The kitchens run to 2,400mm with an E0 particleboard carcass faced in melamine, PET-faced OSB doors and a compound stone top with a matching backsplash - a specification that survives a rental turnover without being so precious that a tenant is afraid to use it. The same 18mm board carries through to the closets and the TV cabinets, which is why the units read as one building rather than thirteen separate purchases.
- Kitchen H 2,400mm, E0 particleboard carcass, PET/OSB door, stone top
- Closets bedroom and hallway runs, 18mm E0 board
- Living TV cabinets and a coffee bar in the larger types
- Doors HDF solid core, 885 x 2,160mm, acoustic core and drop seal
- Package doors, SPC flooring, sanitaryware, lighting, curtains, furniture
- Units 13 types, one frozen drawing set
The build
What the owner sent back.
13APARTMENT TYPES
2,400MM CEILING RUN
41INTERIOR DOORS
2024ORDERED
Spec
What was built.
| Location | Germany |
| Year | 2024 |
| Sector | Residential - multi-unit apartment block |
| Scope | Kitchen, closet, TV cabinet and storage per unit |
| Package | Doors, SPC flooring, sanitaryware, lighting, curtains, furniture |
| Board | 18mm E0 particleboard, melamine faced |
| Doors | HDF solid core, 885 x 2,160mm, acoustic core |
| Drawing set | 13 unit types, frozen before production |
Thirteen types means thirteen sets of carcass dimensions rather than one repeated module. The door schedule alone runs to 41 leaves across the block, each one cut to its own opening.
Factory to site
How the project ran.
Week 0 - Plan review
Thirteen unit plans read against each other to find the types that could share a carcass.
Weeks 1-2 - Type drawings
Each type drawn, dimensioned and frozen, because a change after production starts breaks the unit numbering.
Weeks 2-3 - Sample and sign-off
One door, one board and one stone sample signed off against the type drawing.
Weeks 3-5 - Production
Thirteen types cut, edged, drilled to the 32mm system and trial-assembled by type.
Weeks 5-6 - Packing
Crated by unit number so each flat gets one palette, not a share of a mixed container.
Production & export
Crated by unit, because thirteen flats do not unpack the same way.
A single-house order can leave the factory as one flat-packed kit. Thirteen flats cannot: the fitters need to walk into unit 7 with the panels that belong to unit 7. Every crate carried its unit number and its type number on the outside, so the container could be unloaded straight to the correct landing. The same discipline is what the apartment program is built on - per-unit crating, staged to the fit-out calendar.
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FAQ
This project, in plain answers.
How is a thirteen-unit order quoted?
Per unit type, not per unit. Thirteen flats that fall into six or seven layouts are quoted and produced as those types, which is what keeps the cost and the lead time predictable as the count goes up.
Do all thirteen apartments get the same specification?
Same carcass and hardware, different dimensions. The board and the drawer boxes are common across the block, but each type is cut to its own plan - a corner flat and a through flat do not share a storage room.
Why specify acoustic doors in an apartment block?
Because a hollow-core door between two flats is the first thing a tenant notices. These are HDF solid core at 45mm with an acoustic core and a drop seal, which is a different product from an interior door in a house.
Can the whole package be bought from one supplier?
That is what was done here - cabinetry, doors, SPC flooring, sanitaryware, lighting, curtains and loose furniture on one order and one shipment, instead of eight suppliers and eight arrival dates.
How were the crates identified for the fitters?
By unit number and type number on the outside of every crate. A thirteen-flat delivery that arrives unlabelled costs more in site labour than the labelling does.
What lead time should a multi-unit program plan for?
Production runs 10-16 days once the type drawings are frozen; the long pole is the drawing and sign-off stage, and the ocean transit after it. Programs are staged against the fit-out calendar rather than a single delivery date.
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