F rating

Firestopping Penetrations in Rated Shaft Walls- Are You Getting it Right? Part 2

Welcome back to our discussion about firestopping shaft penetrations. With this post we are looking into the question of how do you properly firestop penetrations in a shaft wall assembly. First we will look at block wall assemblies. For the sake of this discussion we will assume these are shafts where we have no reasonable access to the inside of the shaft. Clearly, this will exclude stair shafts because in this condition typically we have access to the inside of the stairwell as well as the outside where the rooms would be located. For the sake of this discussion let’s say we are talking about a mechanical shaft so the penetrations might be 1) bare metal pipe 2) plastic pipe 5) insulated 7) ductwork. If you think my numbers are not in the right order please look at this post so you understand why the numbers are in perfect order. Looking at these different penetrations will help you maneuver through firestop submittals much faster, so please become familiar with the UL nomenclature.

 

If you have any questions or comments about the importance of knowing the nomenclature or asking for submittals feel free to contact me.

 

So let’s start with the easy stuff first. We know that wall applications have to be protected on both sides for the simple fact that we do not know which side of the wall the fire could start on. This makes it complicated because we don’t have access to both side of the wall in this case. If you have been following this blog post or if you have just now reviewed the link above, then you know the UL listed details we need to look at in the submittal will be either CAJ1000 or WJ1000 details.

 

My guess is, that what you need will be found in the WJ details because the CAJ details (as you know) can be used both for floor applications and for wall applications.

 

I’m a dinosaur in this industry (almost 20 years yup I’m a dinosaur- and yes I started when I was 12…LOL) and since I no longer work for a firestop manufacturer I don’t get updated on the new wiz bang details. I had to do a little digging to find you some examples of relatively new details that are perfect for this type of application.

 

You may have heard me say “I don’t have a favorite firestop manufacturer” so don’t think that because I should you use brand A that means they are the best. The best solution for any application is one with a third-party testing agency standing behind the applications as opposed to 1) the guy in the field “wingin’ it” 2) an engineering judgment.

 

That said, here is a perfect detail for your metal pipe through a concrete or block shaft wall: 3M’s WJ1108. This is not the only detail, other manufactures have a similar test, but since this tested system exists; I would suggest that jurisdictions not allow the use of an EJ for the simple fact that tested and listed details should trump EJ’s any day of the week for the simple fact that it that has not been tested.

 

Can you use this for a wall where you have access to both sides? Certainly, but whether you have access or you don’t, be very careful that this is installed properly. Both of these details require 1” of sealant. If you don’t have sufficient annular space then this installation will be difficult to properly install. If you are responsible for special inspection (or even the standard AHJ inspection) you may want to ask to be on site for several installations so you can be sure they install the mineral wool in a way that it is recessed 1” from the outside edge of the concrete. Clearly, if they don’t do this then they cannot install the required 1” depth of sealant.

 

Imagine you have ¼” annular space. Now, picture trying to install 1” of sealant in that space. It will be easy to make it look good when the installation is complete but it will be a challenge to do this right. As an inspector or part of the QC team, it’s your job to be sure its right. If you have any questions, contact us.

 

So, let ‘s move on to the gypsum shaft walls. In this case you know that we are looking at a WL1000 series detail. So first take a look at this detail, WL 1222 

 

If we are going to install the firestop in stages as the drywall is installed, this means we will firestop the shaft liner before the outer layer of drywall goes up. So, does WL1222 work for this? Please take a moment to look at the detail and think about this question.

 

Have you looked at the detail and considered the question? If you think you can use this WL1222 for a shaft wall, I will tell you that you can’t. Go back to the detail and see if you can find out why? Tune in Wednesday to this blog post and I will share the answer with you.

Firestopping Penetrations Through Shafts- Are you getting it right?

Thanks for reading along so far. We have covered a lot in this series on shafts and hopefully you have been able to put some of this to use in the field. Next up, let’s look at what you should see when you are walking in the field looking at all that firestop stuff. Let’s put all this information to work for you.

 

First, you must have the firestop submittals if you are going to review (or install) firestop. The submittals should have UL listed details (or other third party testing agency – OPL or WH) that show the firestop requirements for all of these shaft applications. If you don’t have the details, you can’t properly evaluate the field installations.

 

Let’s walk a site together (You will need to use your imagination here). Say we are on the 5th floor of a hotel project. We are looking at a mechanical shaft. We have bare pipes and insulated pipes stubbing out of the wall to provide water to the bathroom. The shaft liner is up, but there is no firestop on the pipes. We go up to the 6th floor, the drywall is on the outer layer of all the shafts, but they have firestopped only about half of them. As you walk down the hall you see an area where they have not yet firestopped the penetrations into the shaft wall and you can see that they have not firestopped the shaft liner side. This is a problem. Firestop is required on both sides of a wall.

 

Let’s take the same scenario, but this time they did have firestop on the shaft liner side on the 6th floor. However, when you were on the 5th floor you noticed that the hole that was cut for the small, insulated copper pipe is just big enough to get the pipe and the insulation through. The insulation was almost touching the cut edge of the drywall all the way around. You don’t have firestop submittals for the project so you can’t tell that the detail requires annular space of 0-1/2” and what you have in your field condition is continual point contact.

 

If you don’t understand why this is a big deal please review the previous post here. If you are not familiar with how firestop is tested however I suggest you start here because this is the start of that series.

 

If you want to scream at me, “SHARRON YOU CAN’T USE ANY OLD WL DETAIL FOR A SHAFT WALL!!”, check out two posts from now when we address this. If you are not one of the people wanting to scream this at me, then definitely tune in because this is something that even some good contractors might miss.

 

Let’s get back to our field walk. The other thing you can’t see is that the firestop detail calls for 5/8” of firestop to be installed within the annular space. Since there is no annular space there is no way to achieve this depth requirement.

 

You have some problems.

 

The first problem is that you don’t have your firestop submittals, so you can’t reference what is required when you talk to the installer.

 

Second, they have created an installation that either cannot be firestopped properly or may require a more expensive solution.   Of course, if we are talking about a gypsum wall, its not a big deal to make the opening larger (even though the contractor will fight you on this). If you are dealing with a concrete or block opening it will be more difficult for obvious reasons. However, if that opening is sleeved, it may not even be possible to fix.

 

Please also remember, if you are looking at a block wall, they will have to firestop both sides of the wall, or one side but do it two times. This is true both for joints and for through penetrations. If it is a shaft, you likely can’t get to the inside to check on the installations, so you may need to go to the bottom of the shaft before it is closed off to get a look, or you can conduct destructive testing to confirm that it was done right. Please also remember that the firestop details have to match the field installations. If they don’t, it is non-conformant and should not be allowed.

 

I thought this was going to be the last post on the topic. However, since the start of this series I have had a few people ask me some questions. The most prevalent is, “Okay so then HOW DO WE PROPERLY FIRESTOP SHAFT APPLICATIONS? “

 

We will address this in the next few blog posts. If you have any other questions, concerns or photos of WHAT DO WE DO WITH THIS? or IS THIS OKAY? Keep the feedback coming because I have a handful of issues to bring up for you once we complete this series.

Are your Firestop Submittals Missing Shaft Details? (part 4)

Thanks for reading along so far. We have covered a lot in this series on shafts and hopefully you have been able to put some of this to use in the field. Next up, let’s look at what you should see when you are walking in the field looking at all that firestop stuff. Let’s put all this information to work for you.

 

First, you need to have the firestop submittals that show the firestop requirements for all of these shaft applications. If you don’t have the details, you can’t properly evaluate the installations.

 

Let’s walk a site together (You will need to use your imagination here). Say we are on the 5th floor of a hotel project. We are looking at a mechanical shaft. We have bare pipes and insulated pipes stubbing out of the wall to provide water to the bathroom. The shaft liner is up, but there is no firestop on the pipes. We go up to the 6th floor, the drywall is on the outer layer of all the shafts, but they have firestopped only about half of them. As you walk down the hall you see an area where they have not yet firestopped the penetrations into the shaft wall and you can see that they have not firestopped the shaft liner side. This is a problem. Firestop is required on both sides of a wall, even a shaft wall.

 

Let’s take the same scenario, but this time they did have firestop on the shaft liner side on the 6th floor. However, when you were on the 5th floor you noticed that the hole that was cut for the small insulated copper pipe is just big enough to get the pipe and the insulation through. The insulation was almost touching the cut edge of the drywall all the way around. You don’t have firestop submittals for the project so you can’t tell that the detail requires annular space of 0-1/2” and what you have in your field condition is continual point contact. The other thing you can’t see is that the firestop detail calls for 5/8” of firestop in the annular space. Since there is no annular space there is no way to achieve this depth requirement. You have some problems. The first problem is that you don’t have your firestop submittals so you can’t reference what is required when you talk to the installer. Second, they have created an installation that can not be finished correctly. Remember those blogs where we talked about continual point contact and the importance of proper annular space?

Please also remember, if you are looking at a block wall, they will have to firestop both sides of the wall, or one side but do it two times. This is true both for joints and for through penetrations. If it is a shaft, you likely can’t get to the inside to check on the installations so you may need to go to the bottom of the shaft before it is closed off to get a look, or you can conduct destructive testing to confirm that it was done right. Please also remember that the firestop details have to match the field installations. If they don’t, it is non conformant.

If you are working on a project and you have questions about your firestop submittals, or installations please do not hesitate to give us a call.  We are happy to help when we can and if you are close enough we might even swing by to help out if our schedule is open.

NJ DCA CEU Classes

If you want to learn more about protecting commercial kitchen exhaust or the new requirements for AHJ’s with the need for firestop special inspection or when they are required we have some classes for you to consider.  If you want information on other classes provided by DCA please see this brochure.  Sharron is excited to be teaching these two classes again this year.  I know  we will be talking about codes and standards but we actually manage to have a bit of fun.

Are your firestop submittals missing something for shafts? (part 2)

In our last blog post we talked a little about shaft walls, what they are made of and some things to keep an eye out for. We will build on that as we go.

Today we are going to look at firestop submittals as they relate to shaft wall assemblies, so the next time you are reviewing project documents you will have a better idea if something is missing. The easiest way to understand this discussion is to quickly review the UL nomenclature post found here so this will be easier to follow. If you do not know this nomenclature its much more difficult to conduct this exercise.

First let’s think about the RATED JOINTS. Let’s assume that the project has both block shafts and gypsum shafts. As you look at the firestop submittals pull out the HW (head of wall) details and look for the types of shaft walls you have on your project. For this discussion we will assume you have both gypsum and block shaft walls.

GYPSUM WALL:

You will likely have a handful of HW details but if you have gypsum shafts you need to be sure the project has a detail for firestopping this gypsum shaft. When you look at the WL details for gypsum walls, you will notice it is not like the standard gypsum wall details, namely because the shaft walls are built differently so they need to be firestopped differently as well. This will require sealant at the shaft liner as well as on the outer layers of drywall. If you allow this wall type to be firestopped when the wall construction is complete, you will not have a compliant system because you will only have protection from one side of the wall. This would create a major liability for the installer as well as the GC, building owner and building occupants.  If you are looking at a WL2000 series detail for plastic pipes, be sure to take a closer look, but do the same for all your penetration types.

BLOCK WALL

If you have access to both sides of the wall, as you would in an elevator shaft, then it is easy to firestop the head of wall joint on a block wall from either side of the wall. Likewise you can firestop your through penetrations with either a CAJ or WJ detail. If you only have access to one side of the wall, you will need what is commonly referred to as a sandwiched detail and my guess is that it will likely be a WJ detail or possibly an engineering judgement. This would allow for firestop to be installed in four steps. Typically there would be installation of mineral wool recessed maybe 4-1/2” into the joint, then firestop sealant (let’s say it calls for ½” of sealant) then another layer of 3-1/2” of mineral wool followed by another ½” of sealant. There are 4 steps to this installation, which means 4 steps to any firestop inspection as well, unless the inspector wants to try to cut into this kind of joint application, which is going to be a challenge in and of itself. This also means that the firestop detail needs to show installation from one side if this is what the installers are doing.

That is what you expect to see when you are in the field, but when looking at the firestop submittals you need to be sure that the block wall detail that is provided can actually be installed on the project. Is it physically possible? You need to be sure there is a head of wall, bottom of wall and possibly a wall to wall detail for the gypsum assembly. It is not uncommon for a contractor to miss these details, so be on the lookout for them.

Next, think about what penetrations will be going through your shaft walls. The block and concrete walls often will not have access from the inside of the shaft so a sandwiched application needs to be used in many cases, though there are devices that can be used and installed from one side. If we are working on a project with you then we can help you determine which different manufacturers products would be best for various scenarios. Let’s say your stairwell walls are block or concrete. This means the firestop details you will need will start with either a CAJ or a WJ (potentially WK for thicker walls). You will need a 1000 series detail for your sprinkler pipes and conduits, unless you have plastic sprinkler pipes then you will need a 2000 series detail as well as a 3000 series for your MC cables. You won’t need a 7000 series detail for your ducts because they are going through a 2 hour wall and will require dampers. Pull out these details and be sure that if you only have one side access that the details will allow one sided access for the installation requirements. If not, you will need an Engineering Judgment. If you are in NJ, remember DCA does not allow EJ’s- sorry NJ.

Typically firestop installers will submit details for the various penetrations through a standard wall. These may be okay if the shaft wall type is included in what is allowed in the listed detail. If it is included, then you are fine, and if not then they need to submit a new detail. This will be found in item 1 of all details. These details will start with WL for gypsum framed walls and if it is a mechanical shaft you will likely have WL 1000 for metal pipes, WL 5000 for insulated pipes, maybe WL 2000 for plastic pipes. When doing the installation or inspection of these walls you will want to be sure to check annular space and sealant depth to be sure it conforms with the details. You will also want to be sure the installer firestops the shaft liner side before the outer two layers of drywall go up as you will see in one of the later posts.

We have given you a few things to be cautious about, but in our next post we will dig deeper into this and the building code. If you have questions about a recent firestop submittal please contact us for help.

How Fire Rated Assemblies Are Tested

It’s a New Year, so I thought I would play around with a new medium. I have pulled up a few old videos from various training segments I’ve recorded in the past 5 years. Here is a brief general discussion about how rated assemblies are tested. There is so much more I want you to know about this, but this is not a bad start and it segues into some of the older blog posts we have shared.

In order to make this information practical, so you can use it in the field, please remember that knowing how assemblies are tested helps you understand how they fail when not properly installed. Think about the hose stream test when you are looking at applications with large annular space, with insufficient annular space or installations with just a smear of sealant. These are both critical to the performance of a firestop installation.  The various hyperlinks will bring you to different segments for further discussion if you are interested in learning more.

Please share this with anyone you think might benefit from this information.

As always, if you have any questions or even topics for future blog posts, don’t hesitate to reach out to us.  We are happy to help when we can.

 

UPDATE: Jan 6

I want to give a HUGE shout out to RICK BARONE for making  a correction for me. This video clip was edited from one of the first classes I did when I started teaching again, and as with most things we are new at, there were errors.  I noticed it during editing a few months ago but forgot to comment on it when I posted it.  Rick says it better than I could so I will just include his comments here and say THANK YOU RICK.  I love when people support others to do better.

“You have some inaccuracies in the video…The time temperature curve is controlled by the test facility….If your test specimens furnace isn’t at 1000f at 5 minutes it will be because the lab tech didn’t maintain the time temp curve within the prescribe tolerance. The customer doesn’t fail, the lab must abort the test and rerun..usually at their own cost if they are a credible lab…but a nice start with a new communication vehicle..” Rick Barone 1/5/2017

Firestop Classes in New Jersey

Hi everyone,

I am excited to announce the schedule for Rutgers Fall classes.  There are  heaps of great classes available in this program, but the ones I am teaching are:

Understanding the Requirements of Firestop Special Inspection- 1705.17

Special inspection (SI) of firestop is a requirement in NJ and since there is no licensing process the local jurisdictions (AHJ) are responsible for ensuring that the contracted inspector is actually qualified.  This class goes over the reporting requirements and a few ways to identify if your SI is up for the job.  Participants will even walk away with a few inspection tricks up their sleeve to try out on their next project.  This class is designed to help the AHJ’s keep the hacks out of their jurisdiction. While there are three slides specific to the NJ building codes, most of the information relates to ASTM E2174, ASTM E2393 and ASTM E3038 and the Chapter of the IBC as it relates to special inspection of firestop.

My favorite comment about this class last semester: “That changes everything!”

Classes will be on Friday, Nov 6 in Parsippany NJ & Thursday, Nov 16 in Cape May NJ

Inspecting Grease Duct Wrap-

We have a bit of fun in this class and do a hands on installation of grease duct wrap on an actual duct.  Okay, so its not a “real” grease duct, because I have to schlep it into the class room and screw it together.  It would fail the light test with your back turned. But the installation is real, the installers and inspectors are real, and the other materials are exactly what is used in the field.  We do an inspection and learn how the mock field installation would fail the required lab tests.  This helps the participants be able to take the technical information into the field more effectively.  Then we talk about some more complication installations, what to look for during inspections.  We end with a discussion of the various materials that are found in the field and this semester we hope to have samples of the factory insulated materials so we can add this to the discussion.

My favorite comment about this class last semester: (at our first break about 90 minutes into a 5 hour class) “I only signed up for the class because I needed the credits for my license.  I didn’t think there was really anything for me to learn here.  My class yesterday was great.  I expected to learn a lot, and I did.  I gotta say though, I’ve learned more in this class already, than I did all day yesterday. “

Tuesday, Nov 28 in Evesham NJ & Tursday, Dec 14 in Sayreville NJ

 

If you are interested in joining any of these classes, or having us present the class in your area,  please email us.

Understanding the why behind whats important when inspecting firestop?- Part 1

When you look at a UL listed detail that has a 1-hour F rating, what does that tell you? At a very basic level you can expect the assembly was tested and didn’t let fire through for one hour. There is so much more to it than that and once you understand, it might change how you inspect firestop. Keep reading and let me know if it does.

 

F RATING- as defined on UL website

The F-rating criteria prohibits flame passage through the system and requires acceptable hose-stream test performance. Lets break this into two parts. First it is saying that fire doesn’t breach the assembly during the test period. Obviously, with firestop, we are trying to contain a fire; so we want to know that the rated assemblies will keep a fire at bay for the designated time period which is known as the F rating. A 1-hour rated wall is expected to contain a fire for 1 hour. F ratings for firestop are 1, 2, 3, and 4 hours. The temperature inside the furnace during the test will increase as the duration of the fire increases. For example in a 1 hour test the temperature will be at least 1700F (538C) at the 1-hour mark and 2000F at the 4-hour mark (1093C). Surviving these temperatures is still not enough to obtain an F rating for a rated assembly. There is one more critical element involved in the test procedure called the hose stream test.

 

HOSE STREAM TEST- what it is and isn’t

I have sat through too many classes on firestop, codes and what not, only to cringe when I hear the instructor tell the class that the hose stream test replicates impact of the fire fighting methods on the fire rated assembly. It is like nails on a chalkboard to me and I can feel it running down my spine. (Yes I am that much of a geek, that it bugs me to the core) By the time the fire fighters are on the scene with their hoses, any loss of life in that area has likely occurred. Property damage is done. Firestop serves no purpose at this point, because the integrity of the assembly has failed and fire has breached the wall or floor. Fire fighting methods are not part of the firestop test. I believe that understanding this critical element of the firestop testing process is integral to the proper inspection of firestop. We will get into this more shortly. In fact, a lot more, because this is a 5-part discussion about why the hose stream test needs to be better understood in order to improve firestop inspections. For now however, I would like to share this article by Chad Stroike of Hilti. Chad does an excellent job explaining the hose stream test, why it is part of the fire test standard and what it is intended to replicate.

Thanks to Chad and to the IFC for this great article.