Halpert Life Safety Consulting LLC
Saving Lives for the Life of the Building
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
Do you want to take a look at exterior facades on a global scale. This presentation was from the UL Future Built Forum a year ago and as can be expected is packed with valuable information. You can check it out here.
There has been a great deal of discussion about the exterior facades of buildings and sadly there have been stories of how detrimental facade choices can be. This prompted a discussion at a forum in January of last year that was sponsored by UL, NYPD and IAFF. The next three blog posts will be dedicated to the discussions from this forum.
This first one is from Jesse Beitel from Jensen Hughes. You can see it here. Take some time to think about the projects in your area and how or if this could impact your community.
For those of you who think that a similar fire can’t happen in the US, here is an article that would disagree with that stance.
Enjoy!
Hi everyone,
I wanted to share the 2020 New Jersey Department of Community Affairs Firestop class schedule with anyone who wants to join us for a little fun.
There are three classes where you can find me this semester and they are all new. I have completely reformatted the 1705.17 Firestop Special Inspection Class. We will have a class on Firestop Common Problems. We will have a Learn and Burn, but you will only get one shot at this class.
1705.17- FIRESTOP SPECIAL INSPECTION
What does the class cover:
We have completely revamped this class from the previous one, so it presents the information in a much more user friendly way. We hope you agree and we look forward to seeing you there.
Please know that this class is not designed to teach you HOW to do the work. That information can’t be jammed into a one day course. IMHO. This class covers just the basics to determine if you have the right person doing firestop special inspection on your team, or not.
Who is the class designed for:
Building Inspectors: Special Inspection of firestop is not currently something you can get a state approval for. Here is the Special Inspector Certification Handbook. As the document says, “There are eight separate types of Special Inspector certification each of which has its own requirements…” You will notice that firestop is NOT one of the 8. That means each individual jurisdiction is responsible for approving a special inspector. This class will help you do that.
Building Owners & Architects: Did you know that the architect, is responsible for reviewing the inspector and approving them, as well as reviewing and approving the inspection reports. We will get into that for both the AOR and the AHJ.
The classes will be held on April 7th in Mays Landing and May 6 in Budd Lake 2020
FIRESTOP- COMMON ISSUES
What does the class cover:
Hold on to your hat if you come to this class, because we have a WHOLE LOT of information to throw at you and then we have to pull it all back together so it makes sense before we are done. We will start the class with the basics, vocabulary, building codes and standards so we make sure everyone is on the same page. I know that sounds BOOORING right?!? It won’t be because in the middle of all this we will break into some magic tricks (I’m very serious about this!- MAGIC TRICKS that you will use on your job sites and people will wonder…”How’d they do that!”)
If you come to this class, get a good nights sleep and a big cup of coffee. We are going to go fast all day long and you will look at firestop differently when we are done.
Who is the class designed for:
This class is great for anyone who ever looks at firestop. Facilities Managers, Building Inspectors, Arson Investigators, GC’s, any sub involved in firestop whether they self perform firestop or not, Insurance Investigators, Architects & Engineers and more. Don’t tell anyone but this is a fun class. Let’s just say, you won’t be in your seat the whole day.
The classes will be held on April 2 in Whippany, April 30 in Atlantic City Ballys, and May 7th in Waretown 2020
LEARN AND BURN!
I am so excited to bring this class to you and before I tell you about it I have to give a HUGE shout out to STI for hosting it for us. We could not do this without them. We can handle the learn part in any classroom or any job site, but the burn part we need their help. STI has a burn facility where they test their firestop through penetrations and rated joints and you get to see where it all happens, and how it happens. We have been talking about this for two years and we finally pulled all the pieces together.
I can’t wait to see you there!
What does the class cover:
You see this firestop smeared all over the place and some people wonder if it really works. This class you will get to see for yourself. We will put a gypsum wall on a furnace and BURN IT!!! Well, we will subject it to a mini burn. (Trust me you don’t want to sit there watching a wall for an hour…its almost like watching paint dry, but it smells worse!) So we will do an abbreviated burn test, complete with the hose stream test. (That part is impressive) We will talk codes and standards and a little about how to dig into a firestop submittal, because that is the key to getting the firestop right.
Who is the class designed for:
This is another class that would be great for anyone who ever looks at firestop. Are you a Facilities Manager, Building Inspector, Arson Investigator, GC, any sub involved in firestop, Insurance Investigator, Architect & Engineer and more. Join us for our LEARN AND BURN at STI in Somerville NJ on May 13th 2020!
If you want to register for any of these classes or see the other classes offer by Rutgers and DCA go to this link for more information.
If you have questions about firestop before the class, feel free to reach out to me. I am happy to help if I am able. SEE YOU IN CLASS THIS SPRING!
So, the mail comes and my son is looking through a magazine that had come. Suddenly he says, “Hey, look! There’s MOM!” I thought he was being funny, until my other son went over and they started talking about the article and, “Hey there’s another picture!” Sure enough and here it is!
Last week we mentioned a new standard for firestop installers. Today we are going to talk about a new standard for Special Inspection of Firestop.
WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT?
We find that a number of special inspection firms who do an array of special inspection tasks are asked to do “this fire thing” and they comply with the clients request without complying with the actual requirements of the standards that are written into the building codes. This causes a liability for everyone- the owner, the builder, the community…. But it is a liability for the architect as well because they are responsible for reviewing the inspector as well as their reports. It is written into the inspection standards as such and since those standards are part of the building code, there is a legal obligation to conform with the standards.
If you have questions about this and you are a building official or an architect, I am happy to send you a document that is designed to help you vet a special inspection firm so you can be sure they are qualified and competent according to the current codes. If you email me from an email address of a building or fire official or an architects office I will gladly forward you this document.
WHAT MIGHT AN ARCHITECT CHANGE IN THIER SPECIFICATIONS
Our discussion today is on relatively new standard that architects may want to consider writing into their specifications. ASTM E3038 is the “Standard Practice for Assessing and Qualifying Candidates as Inspectors of Firestop Systems and Fire-Resistive Joint Systems”. By including this in your project specifications you are asking for a way of confirming that whoever is conducting this scope of work has a certain level of training that enables them to complete this scope of work in accordance with the standards that are already written into the codes (ASTM E2174 and ASTM E2393 for inspection of firestop penetrations and rated joints respectively)
If you want to make your life easy, just throw this requirement into your quality segment of your firestop through penetrations specifications. If you want to know more about this, feel free to reach out to us for more details or purchase a copy of the standard at the ASTM website.
WHAT DOES THE STANDARD REQUIRE?
Here are just a few of the requirements. For all the information please visit ASTM and purchase the standard.
If you are a code official, remember that once you have approved a set of plans and specifications, then the build team is legally obligated to provide the level of quality in the construction documents, so even if you can enforce it per the building code, you can based on the approved specifications the owner and architect have agreed to for the project.
Keep learning and keep improving! If we can help don’t hesitate to contact us!
Architects are always trying to cover all the bases when they write their specifications. I am not an architect, but occasionally I am asked to review a project specifications. There is a new ASTM Standard that I would recommend for architects who want up to date specifications. The International Firestop Council has taken the time to write a piece on the topic so I wanted to share it with you all.
IFC FS Installer Guide ASTM E3157
If your specifications say that installations need to conform to ASTM E3157 then you cover all the bases for good installations such as following a firestop detail, cleaning the substrate, troweling the sealant, using the right backer material and much more.
If you would like more information on it check out the link for the article by the IFC. If you want more information about firestop, go to the IFC website. Check back next week for another suggestion for architects specifications you might be interested in.
If you are a code official, remember that once you have approved a set of plans and specifications, then the build team is legally obligated to provide the level of quality in the construction documents, so even if you can enforce it per the building code, you can based on the approved specifications the owner and architect have agreed to for the project.
Keep learning and keep improving! If we can help don’t hesitate to contact us!
NYC Center for Architecture does a lot of training for local architects. My buddy Dave came out to do this session on the topic. If you want to learn more about the topic have a look here. Its a two hour video so grab a cup of coffee before you start but he is a wealth of knowledge and its two hours well spent if you need to know more about fireproofing that looks good or is exposed to the elements.
I have seen so many project specifications requiring a W rating. If you don’t know what a W rating is, please read this first. If you are already familiar with a W rating, do you know if it a requirement on your project? I recently looked at a wood framed project and there were W rating requirements. Clearly the architect has stock specifications that don’t take into account the fact that a wood framed project is NOT going to be capable of mitigating water movement in the way a concrete floor might.
But lets say you are dealing with a concrete floor, then W ratings are a viable requirement…except, when they are not.
Remember the test for a W rating is a three foot column of water that prevents even a single drop of water for 72 hours. If the specifications say as a blanket statement that a W rating is a requirement of floor penetration firestop systems, then what about a bundle of cables? What about MC cables? What about insulated pipes, the brackets to support the weight of multiple floors of pipes will break well below the three foot mark and how might one maintain the W rating with a break in the insulation, or with insulation that can’t hold back water such as fiberglass or other field installed insulations?
If you have been in construction for a while I am sure you can think of other examples when W rated firestop is not a reasonable requirement.
Im not saying stop asking for W ratings, because they are amazing. I could tell you some stories where they were a HUGE success. But be aware of the limitations and if you specify it, know what you are asking for. If you have a project that has W ratings specified and no one is asking questions, then my guess is they are not conforming with the specification.
If you have any questions feel free to contact us. We are happy to help if we are able.