Talking Point

FIRE SAFETY: BUILDING SERVICES PENETRATIONS

In order to comply with Building Regulations, penetration seals should be designed to ensure they can adequately accommodate the required number and type of services. With specifiers under increasing pressure to ensure fire compartmentation is maintained, the Finishes and Interiors Sector (FIS) outlines the most common methods for the selection and specification of firestopping products, and the importance of independent third-party certification and technical evaluations.

Iain McIlwee is a Materials Engineer whose journey in construction started in a scaffolding yard in Hanwell in 1995. Iain is now CEO of Finishes and Interiors Sector (FIS), the trade body for the £10bn fit-out, interiors and finishing sector.

Firestopping has historically been considered an activity that can be undertaken by those carrying out the installation on site. As a result, very little consideration has been given to the firestopping of service penetrations during the design stage. The problem with this approach is that it makes it very difficult, or even impossible, to install manufacturer-tested and -approved firestopping solutions as there is usually insufficient space available.

Dampers, pipes and cables are sometimes installed within the same penetration when there isn’t an approved test method for that scenario. There are also cases of deviations from tested and approved manufacturer details at critical interfaces such as where services emanate from risers. Another challenge is there can be a misunderstanding on ‘who does what?’ as firestopping includes roles and responsibilities which are not sufficiently considered and allocated.

Generally, these issues occur as a result of a lack of consideration to passive firestopping, a lack of clarity on roles and responsibilities between specialist trades and a lack of ownership.

Design considerations

In order to get firestopping right, the industry needs to be looking at incorporating standard solutions and that means the firestopping of service penetrations needs to be considered when the building is being spatially planned and the building services systems are being designed and co-ordinated. The primary objective is to ensure that third-party-tested and -approved standard firestopping solutions are incorporated into the design.

For this to happen, it is likely that specialist sub-contractors and firestopping manufacturers will need to be engaged earlier than they would be traditionally.

It is also essential that everyone involved in the design and construction stage reads and understands the fire strategy. This should be prepared by a suitably qualified and experienced fire engineer and provide details of compartmentation and the requirements for any passive fire protection. The section on penetration seals should be read and understood by the designer, contractor, installers and checkers of the penetration seals to ensure they are compliantly designed and installed.

To ensure standard tested and approved firestopping details are incorporated at design and coordination stage, best practice is to ensure that the builder’s work penetrations are sized and then subsequently positioned using spacing rules developed from tested and approved details. These spacing rules should include factors such as pipe diameters, insulation thicknesses and edge distances. By doing this, it will ensure that builder’s work penetrations are not under- or over-sized, and will make it easier for the firestopping contractor to seal the penetration in accordance with the tested and approved detail.

Collaborative approach

To ensure the best chance of success, service penetrations should be considered collaboratively at design stage with input from the M&E designer, architect, and ideally the partition contractor and firestopping specialist. There are usually several parties involved in the installation of service penetrations and it is important that all those who carry out installation are competent to do so. However, the really important message is that firestopping of the penetration seal should be carried out by a third-partyaccredited firestopping specialist. It should not be left to the M&E contractor, as they may not have the competence to take on that responsibility.

Whenever someone is specifying firestopping products, it’s important that they specify a thirdparty-tested product. In short, this means it has been independently tested by a UKAS-accredited laboratory and it will have a declaration of performance, or other performance rating that has been independently verified. The alternative is that someone has tested it themselves but there are no assurances of reliability and safety. The second part of this is that the contractors who are employed to carry out the firestopping should be third-party certified as a specialist to carry out that work.

Compliance and third-party certification

Compliance is about ensuring that a tested and approved solution is properly selected based on the fire strategy and then installed by competent individuals in accordance with that testing and approved solution. In other words, the product should be selected based on a standard detail from a manufacturer and then a competent installer needs to be able to demonstrate they have installed the solution based on that standard detail. This becomes an audit trail and demonstration of compliance with Building Regulations.

There are three ways that the industry appears to work in the respect of technical evaluation, with the worst-case scenario being self-declaration whereby a manufacturer might say that its product is tested to a certain standard. However, there is no guarantee that the product will actually have reached that correct standard, so in this case, the specifier is simply relying on their advice or word. The second scenario is a manufacturer will have a test report whereby their product was tested in accordance with ‘X,Y,Z’ and they have a certificate. This, however, raises questions as to whether or not the test sample was actually representative of what is being installed on site. The product test is not installation-specific and there may be design changes. The best-case scenario is thirdparty certification, as that ensures product conformity, as well as a full audit of the company involved in the manufacturing of the product. This will provide the specifier, customer and end-user with the confidence the product has been tested fully in accordance with the latest British standards and is fit for purpose.

A new Best Practice Design and Installation Guide, Firestopping of Service Penetrations, produced by five leading not-for-profit organisations representing the wider construction and fire safety industries (ASFP, BESA, BSRIA, FIS and GPDA), has been put together as a good-practice approach to firestopping on a construction project – from design to inspection – and will enable a project team to meet their obligations to deliver a safe and secure project in terms of penetration seals.

Fire safety in performance, both now and also in the future, is absolutely key and ties into the ‘golden thread’ of transparency and accountability. It is a conversation that should be between all parties including the manufacturer, architect, specialist installer, fire engineer and M&E consultants. Everyone involved in the provision of a fire protection package, at any level, shares liability for its effectiveness and performance when needed in a fire. If properly designed, effective compartmentation is a major measure to protect life safety and buildings. 

www.thefis.org