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    Salim Bakhsh

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    Wikipedia

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    Salim Bakhsh
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    Wikipedia

    Uploaded by

    Salim Bakhsh

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    of 6

    Firestop

    A firestop or fire-stopping is a form of passive fire protection that is used to seal around openings and
    between joints in a fire-resistance-rated wall or floor assembly. Firestops are designed to maintain the fire-
    resistance rating of a wall or floor assembly intended to impede the spread of fire and smoke.[1]

    Contents
    Description
    Opening types
    Materials
    Maintenance
    Tagging
    Ratings
    Testing and certification
    Regulations and compliance
    Inadequate firestopping
    No firestopping
    Non-listed attempts
    See also
    References
    External links

    Description
    Firestops prevent unprotected horizontal and vertical penetrations in a fire-resistance-rated wall or floor
    assembly from creating a route by which fire and smoke can spread that would otherwise have been fire
    resisting construction, e.g. where a pipe passes through a firewall.

    Fire stopping is also to seal around gaps between fire resisting constructions, e.g. the linear gap between a
    wall and the floor above, in order for construction to form a complete barrier to fire and smoke spread.

    Opening types

    Firestops are used in:

    Electrical, mechanical, and structural penetrations


    Unpenetrated openings (such as openings for future use)
    Re-entries of existing firestops
    Control or sway joints in fire-resistance-rated wall or floor assemblies
    Junctions between fire-resistance-rated wall or floor assemblies
    Head-of-wall (HOW) joints, where non-load-bearing wall assemblies meet floor assemblies

    Numeric characters are used to identify what penetrant, if any, can be found within the present system and
    help identify what UL-tested system was used.

    Classification for penetrations and the barriers they penetrate, are categorized by a standardized letter-
    number system that has been adopted by all firestop products manufacturers.[2][3] A typical system would
    consist of several letters, followed by a series of numbers indicating the type of penetrant that is passing
    through the particular barrier ex: (FB-5533.)

    Materials

    Components include intumescents, cementitious mortars, silicone, firestop pillows, mineral fibers, and
    rubber compounds.

    Fire test of mortar-based Pipe with metallic Inadequate firestop with


    firestop piping penetrations in a rockwool
    2-hour fire-resistance
    rated concrete floor slab

    Construction drawing of a Firestop mortar seal of


    firestop a cable tray

    Maintenance
    Firestops should be maintained in accordance with listing and approval use and compliance. Construction
    documentation sometimes includes an inventory of all firestops in a building, with drawings indicating their
    location and certification listings. Using this, a building owner can meet the fire code relating to fire
    barriers. Improper repairs may otherwise result, which would violate the fire code and could allow a fire to
    travel between areas intended by code to be separated during a fire.

    Tagging
    Proper maintenance is enhanced by the installation of tags on each side of the firestop with information
    needed to refer to documents indicating approved procedures for the original installation and re-entries.
    This requires knowledge of the certification listing used for each opening of a building joint or a penetrant
    through-penetration seal.

    Firestop tag front, with information needed for Tag back,


    proper maintenance for
    recording
    maintenan
    ce

    Ratings
    Firestop materials are not rated per se. They receive a fire rating by combining materials in an arrangement
    specific to the item (a pipe or cable, for example) penetrating the fire-rated wall or floor and the
    construction arrangement of the fire-rated wall or floor. A two-hour-rated pipe-penetration firestop may
    consist of a layer of caulking over packed mineral wool. The arrangement, not the caulking, provides the
    two-hour rating. The individual firestop materials and the overall firestop assembly are listed.

    Testing and certification


    Certification listings include those available from:

    Underwriters Laboratories
    Underwriters Laboratories of Canada
    Deutsches Intitut für Bautechnik (Germany)

    FIRAS scheme- Warrington Fire (UK)

    Efectis (Netherlands, France, and Norway)


    FM Global[4]

    Regulations and compliance


    When the installed configuration does not comply with the appropriate certification listing, the fire-
    resistance rating may be lower than expected. Each opening in a fire-resistance-rated wall or floor in a
    building must have a certification listing. There are thousands of listings from various certification and
    testing laboratories. The Canadian and United States Underwriters Laboratories publish books listing
    firestop manufacturers who have contracted with them for testing and certification.

    Inadequate firestopping

    No firestopping

    Older buildings often lack firestops. A thorough inspection can identify all vertical and horizontal fire
    barriers and their fire ratings, and all breaches in these barriers (which can be sealed with approved
    methods).

    Unsealed pipe Improper breach


    penetration in two-hour of fire-resistance
    fire-resistance rated rated drywall
    concrete block wall assembly

    Non-listed attempts

    Firestops created by contractors or building maintenance personnel which are not listed are not credited
    with an adequate fire resistance rating for building-code compliance purposes. They are usually short-term,
    cost-cutting measures at the expense of fire safety and code compliance. One common error is citing a
    listing for a product which may be for another use. An insulation with an active listing of a certain flame-
    spread rating is unacceptable for firestopping purposes.
    Common concrete, with no testing Stuffed fiberglass insulation would
    intended for certification listing rapidly melt and fall out in a fire.

    Spray Polyurethane
    fireproofing foam used to fill a
    improperly cable tray
    used to cover penetration; at
    penetrations Browns Ferry
    Nuclear Power
    Plant, this type of
    seal resulted in
    significant fire
    damage.

    See also
    Firestop pillow Certification mark
    Penetrant Silicone foam
    Penetration (firestop) Packing (firestopping)
    Endothermic Sleeve (construction)
    Annulus (firestop) Heat sink
    Product certification

    References
    1. "Fire Stopping: What Every Contractor Needs to Know | EC Mag" (http://www.ecmag.com/se
    ction/codes-standards/fire-stopping-what-every-contractor-needs-know). www.ecmag.com.
    Retrieved 2017-09-06.
    2. "3M Technical Library/Technical Bulletins" (https://www.3m.com/3M/en_US/building-constru
    ction-us/applications/firestop/tech-library/technical-bulletins/). 3M.
    3. "Firestop Contractors International Association Technical-Resources" (https://www.fcia.org/t
    echnical-resources/). fcia.com.
    4. http://www.fmglobal.com/assets/pdf/fmapprovals/4991.pdf Approval Standard for Approval of
    Firestop Contractors, Class Number 4991

    External links
    Gütegemeinschaft Brandschutz im Ausbau (http://www.gba-brandschutz.de/) German
    passive fire protection association
    International Firestop Council (http://www.firestop.org/) An International association of
    firestop manufacturers, consultants, inspectors, and contractors
    Efectis (http://www.efectis.com/) Test Laboratory
    UL and International Firestop Council (IFC) video Close enough is not good enough: A
    demonstration of Proper vs Improper Firestopping (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxzG
    gz3WvrI)
    UL Essay On Firestops (https://web.archive.org/web/20081021004900/http://www.ul.com/fir
    e/firestop.html)
    Deutsches Institut für Bautechnik (DIBt) (http://www.dibt.de/)
    iBMB (http://www.ibmb.tu-bs.de/) a part of Technische Universität Braunschweig
    Underwriters' Laboratories of Canada (ULC) (http://www.ulc.ca/)
    Underwriters Laboratories (http://www.ul.com/)

    Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Firestop&oldid=1093421366"

    This page was last edited on 16 June 2022, at 14:13 (UTC).

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