Firestop

A firestop is a passive fire protection system of various components used to seal openings and joints in fire-resistance rated wall and/or floor assemblies, based on fire testing and certification listings.

Unprotected openings in fire separations void the fire-resistance ratings of the fire separations that contain them, allowing spread of fire past the limits of the fire safety plan of the entire building. Firestops are designed to restore the fire-resistance ratings of rated wall and/or floor assemblies by impeding the spread of fire through the opening by filling the openings with fire resistant materials.

Opening types

• Electrical through-penetrations
• Mechanical through-penetrations
• Structural through-penetrations
• Unpenetrated openings (e.g. openings for future use)
• Re-entries of existing firestops
• Control or sway joints within fire-resistance rated wall or floor assemblies
• Junctions between fire-resistance rated wall or floor assemblies
• "Head-of-wall" (HOW) joints, where non-loadbearing wall assemblies meet floor assemblies

Materials

Firestop materials include, but are not limited to the following specialised products and devices:

• Intumescents
• Firestop mortars
• Firestop silicones, both one-part and two-part
• Firestop pillows
• Mineral fibres
• One-, two-, and three-part firestop rubber compounds

Ratings

A common misunderstanding of firestops is that certain materials have certain ratings on their own. For instance, a two-hour rated pipe penetration firestop may consist of a 5 mm layer of caulking, over top of 100 mm of packed rockwool. The layman may assume that the 5 mm layer of the caulking provides a two hour fire-resistance rating, generically, regardless of the application, which is incorrect. Materials are not individually rated. Instead, they are used as components within an overall system or certification listing. In addition, all materials in and around the firestop must employ listing and approval use and compliance such as to conform to the tolerances shown in the certification listing that covers each such installation, including the penetrants, which may have their own product certification requirements apart from forming part of a certification listing for a firestop.

Common problems and solutions

It is important that firestops be used in accordance with the listing and approval use and compliance. Documentation for each construction site should exist, including an inventory of all firestops in a building, identification tags and a separate set of drawings showing each firestop and the certification listings used for each installed firestop. Unless this documentation is called for during the planning stages, created during construction and turned over in its entirety to the owner, along with comprehensive training for maintenance purposes, the owner has no way of knowing which hole is firestopped how and why that matters to his or her ability to meet the requirements of the fire code once the building is occupied. Otherwise, proper repairs are guesswork, which violates the fire code.

The collection, turn-over and training of this information for the owner is often not required or completed. Proper documentation is maximised by having one speciality firestop contractor do all of the firestopping on site, allowing co-ordination and collation of the documentation for the eventual turn-over to the owner. Otherwise, up to a dozen different contractors or more could be involved, each using materials from different manufacturers, which are not interchangeable. The owner should be educated of the importance and role of firestopping, and passive fire protection to prevent the most common fire code violations, where firestopping is concerned.

Incoming search terms:

• fire separations