Understanding UL Nomenclature for Firestop-Through Penetrations: Part 3
So, you are now armed with an amazing tool that will help you elicit the best out of your firestop installers. If you are worried you won’t remember all these letters and numbers, email me and I will send you a cheat sheet you can print out, keep in your wallet or pocket and refer to it before or during your inspections. At the end of UL Nomenclature: Test Yourself! I will tell you how to get your hands on a few secret tips to get more out of your installers. This is valuable for inspectors, firestop foremen (with trained crews or crews in training to be the best), and anyone with firestop subcontractors (mechanical, electrical, plumbing, fire sprinkler, drywaller, masons, general contractors, architects, building owners, developers, insurance review staff, hospital or other maintenance crews).
I really like food. So, the last step of your lesson on understanding the UL nomenclature is going to be a food analogy. This last step is understanding when you need the 8000 series detail. I like to think of this as a fantastic buffet. If you go to a buffet that has great shrimp but you are allergic to shrimp, that doesn’t mean you can eat at that buffet. It just means you won’t likely be eating the shrimp (unless you are chasing it with shots of Benadryl). However if you want to eat chocolate cake and they don’t have it, you are out of luck. If chocolate cake is what you really want then you have to go to a different buffet.
The same is true with the 8000 series details. If you have a detail that allows the use of cables, metal pipes and insulated pipe; but your field condition only has insulated pipes and cables, can you still use this 8000 series detail? The answer is, YES you may. Just like at the buffet you don’t need to eat the shrimp.
However, if your field condition has plastic pipes and cables then you cannot use this detail. The plastic pipe is like your chocolate cake. You are out of luck and have to look for a different detail.
On our next blog post we will put you to the test and see how much of this you can remember. We will give you some field applications and see if you can identify the correct UL nomenclature. This will help you drill through the firestop submittals so you can identify the correct UL detail to use in various applications. I hope you find this useful. If so, please let me know. If there are other topics you want me to cover then let me know that as well. If you want to review Rated Joints, Nomenclature ABC’s, and 123’s.
Want me to email you a cheat sheet you can keep in your wallet to peek at when you need it? You might need it for the next blog posting!
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Our mission is to make a colossal impact on the level of life safety of your building and on the talent of your people. We provide consultation, training, quality control and third party special inspection related to firestop and passive fire protection. We consult for the building industry in the New York/New Jersey (NY/NJ) metropolitan area, as well as across the United States and internationally.