Halpert Life Safety Consulting LLC
Saving Lives for the Life of the Building
If you are an architect, this video; which is the last in our three part series, is designed to help you understand the requirements as they are called out in the ICC Special Inspection Manual as they are related to the requirement for third party special inspection of firestop pursuant to the IBC 1705.17
If you are an architect or a building official, we hope this video series helps you do your job a little more easily.
If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to us!
If you are an AHJ- Authority Having Jurisdiction; a building official or fire marshal, this video is for you.
This is the second in our three part series. It is designed to help you understand the requirements as they are called out in the ICC Special Inspection Manual as they are related to the requirement for third party special inspection of firestop pursuant to the IBC 1705.17
If you are an architect or a building official, we hope this video series helps you do your job a little more easily.
If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to us!
Firestop special inspection is a relatively new requirement in our building codes. This three part series is designed to help architects and building officials understand how this code change impacts their responsibilities. Understanding how to verify that you have someone who is capable and qualified to do this work for your team is critical and this video is designed to help. While we are not digging into the requirements of the building code or the inspection standards this information is from the ICC Special Inspection Manual.
Our first video in this series will show you an easy way to confirm that your special inspector meets the requirements of the inspection manual. The next two videos to follow will explain the responsibilities of the building official and the architect as they are called out in the ICC Special Inspection Manual.
If you are an architect or a building official, we hope this video helps you do your job a little more easily.
If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to us!
Firestop at head of wall joints seems like a basic installation, but this video is designed to help you look at this basic installation a bit more critically so you can ensure the life safety of your projects meets codes and standards.
The world is a weirdly different place, where its not rude to walk to the other side of the street when you see someone coming. Many of you know that I am in NJ so with this change in place I have decided to to come up with a Covid Creation to share with you all. This will be a series of videos that will focus on fire rated joints. In time we will add in membrane and through penetrations as well, but we have to start somewhere and since I have a sponsor for a few of the videos I figured this was as good a place to start as any.
I hope this serves you and maybe entertains you a little as you learn.
Please let me know what you think of this video, other topics you would find valuable and any suggestions to make this better.
You can check out the video here. If you like this, please subscribe to the channel, like, share and comment on it for me.
Be safe everyone!
Today’s Topic- How do you properly patch a one hour rated wall?
Hi everyone. I hope you are doing well despite the lock down and virus. We are breathing easy over here and I pray that the same is true for you, your family and your teams.
I have been capitalizing on this time to develop a new skill and I can’t wait to share the results with you. It will be some training videos.
One of them will discuss the difference between regular drywall and type X, another will talk about type X drywall vs type C. Since that is all coming down the pike in the next week or two, I wanted to share somethings that will compliment that discussion.
Once you have built a rated wall at some point in time its likely SOMEONE will poke a hole in it. This could happen during construction if someone decides to relocate a pipe for example.
So how do you patch it. If you ask the Gypsum Association, this is how you should patch a rated wall. Please take a moment to look over this so you understand. One of the videos that will be coming will talk about how rated walls are tested, but the one that I hope to get to you first will talk about the difference between regular drywall and we will have a complex discussion about fire dynamics that is actually kinda fun. For now, I will leave you with this from US!
Next week we will talk about how to patch a two hour rated wall, because those are really different.
https://www.gypsum.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/GA-225-15.pdf
Have you ever wondered if building movement may impact a firestop installations ability to perform? Fire rated joints have movement listed as part of their systems, but until now the through penetrations did not. There is a new test standard that will address this missing element.
ASTM E3037 is an interesting new standard that may be valuable to architects, engineers, specifiers and others. It looks at the movement that a firestop system can (or can’t) accommodate. It looks at movement in two directions.
I have a handful of questions and you likely do as well. It will be interesting to see how this all pans out as people start to apply it in the field. Here is a great start to understanding what this test standard is, how it is conducted and possibly applied.
Thank you to UL and Luke Woods for putting this video together for everyone. You can watch it here.
PS thanks to John Valiulus for sharing this
If you have been following this blog for a while you are likely familiar with T ratings. If you aren’t, you can check them out here. If you already know about T ratings, you can skip that link if you prefer.
I cant tell you how many projects I have been involved with that don’t adhere to the T-rating requirements in the building code. People say, “We’ve never done that before.”, too which I historically responded with, it’s been in the codes since before the IBC (which was adopted in 2000- I believe the city of Phoenix was the first to adopt the new code.) but the T rating requirements existed before the IBC. What I didn’t know was WHEN were they first introduced and why. That is until I met Glenn!
If you have been following this blog, you likely know that I am a total code geek?
Well so is this guy, Glenn. He takes it to a whole new level because he has a stash of old code cooks. That makes him the perfect guy when you have a question about code history. I wanted to know when T ratings first came into the codes. Glenn was able to tell me. Check out this awesome video he shared if you want to know for yourself. Follow him on Linked in, YouTube or any venue you like.
If you have a building in your community that has an exterior face of aluminum panels with polyethylene core. Here is a great video from UL that shows you the unfortunate fire test results you might expect. These fire tests are critical to understanding how buildings should be designed and the intrinsic link to the role of fire fighters if there is a fire in your community. Thanks to Sean DeCrane, Dwayne Sloan, UL and IAFF.
Today is another discussion from the Future Built Forum last year held by UL, FDNY and IAFF. This particular presentation was from FDNY and discussed the risks of combustible facades. You can review it here.
Thanks to UL, FDNY and IAFF for all of the information they have allowed us to share. If you have the opportunity to attend one of these events in your region, don’t hesitate. It is time well spent.
This presentation goes over some fundaments of the building envelope. If you are involved in construction this is another valuable presenatation from the Future Built Forum last January hosted by UL, FDNY and IAFF.
Please take time to review the presentation here.
All the best,
Sharron