Joe Cilia, FIS Technical Director, discusses the new FIS guide ‘Walls as a system’ which explains how to ensure interfaces, penetrations, glazing, and doors have compatible and compliant test evidence. Buildings are composed of various products and systems that are assembled into supersystems, such as the structure, roof, façade, M&E (Mechanical and Electrical), and fit-out. However, the interfaces between these products, systems, and supersystems are sometimes designed in isolation, without considering the compatibility of compliant test evidence. To help address this, FIS along with support from the industry, has produced a ‘Walls as a system’ guide which is aimed at everyone involved in designing, specifying, procuring, installing, inspecting, owning and maintaining the built environment.
It looks in detail at where interfaces take place and provides specific guidance on what designers should consider if the products when installed with each other and through each other, do in fact have compatible evidence of compliance. It also introduces the long-overdue term fire wall to describe fire resistant walls in much the same way as fire doors, fire glass, and fire stopping.
Using fire wall puts an emphasis that the wall is doing more than delineating space, it is there to protect people and property alongside a raft of other performance parameters that might be required. This is a complex area because we have generally accepted that product A with evidence of performance will be acceptable if put together with product B with similar evidence of performance. And yet, the granularity of that evidence might preclude them from working as a system. For example, with a compartment wall constructed from drylining, installed to the underside of a structural beam, there is a need to consider how that beam is protected from fire, how deflection is accommodated (to meet the guidance in Approved Document B), and how the requirements for service penetrations, fire stopping, acoustic performance and thermal insulation will be compromised unless further interventions are planned.
Starting at the design stage with a breakdown of identifying responsibilities, reporting, and communication lines using a Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, and Informed (RACI) model it considers how to address the risk of leaving nominal details too late in the process and considering the individual as well as organisational competencies. The question set to establish a specification for fire walls asks designers to consider 34 points to ensure the supporting structure for doors and glazed openings can be delivered compliantly with compatible evidence that can be used at Gateway 2. It includes up-to-date guidance on maintaining the compartment lines below raised access floors and above glazed fire walls with drop bulkheads, as well as addressing how the imposed load from the walls, glazing, and doors will be supported.
The Annex includes a list of all relevant standards and a list of further reading. This guide was produced with the help and collaboration of technical experts and a wider group of peer reviews to help inform, and educate and clearly shows the sector coming together to provide clear relevant, and concise guidance in the same way as we did when the Firestopping of service penetrations guide1 was published. In fact, this guide mirrors the process and is linked to the RIBA Plan of Work (POW) and the Building Safety Act Gateways for Higher Risk Buildings and includes a checklist of considerations aligned to the POW, the key message being early engagement with manufacturers and contractors to ensure that what is designed can be compliantly delivered.
