How to enhance fire safety of façades at high-rise buildings
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High-rise buildings and
high-risk buildings
Specifying an Euroclass A2 classified breather membrane should form part of any overall facade fire strategy for high-rise buildings
Special buildings need a
special grade of fire safety
In buildings higher than 11 m, fire-fighting control and residents’ escape is only possible to a limited extent and evacuation measures are more important than ever within acceptable time frames.
This also applies to buildings with a large number of visitors or residents and where mobility may be an issue, such as hospitals, retirement homes, schools and universities (high-risk buildings).
With the addition of toxic smoke from a fire, the threat is even more deadly. In the event of a fire, the build-up of smoke can reduce visibility, cause confusion and eventually overcome occupants long before the fire itself becomes life-threatening.
Two important trends will determine buildings’ fire safety standards and architecture of the future:
— An ageing society means we will have more residents in our buildings whose mobility may be restricted, leading to compromised evacuation times
— Diminishing land resources is forcing us to use available space more intensively, with higher buildings and greater population density per floor
Both of these issues demand the question: How can we improve difficult fire-fighting areas and reduce the risk of fire and smoke spreading?
Let’s close the gap for full façade design in Euroclass A2
In order to develop sustainable, future-oriented concepts in fire safety, the façade membrane is an essential element when incorporated into a wider fire engineering strategy. It can be a considerable risk factor for fire propagation in the external building envelope and rear-ventilation walls, with potential flashover between floors and possible entry into the building interior.
In this context, we should understand the current UK building regulations as specified in “Approved Document B Regulation 7(2) and requirement in Part B4: External fire spread”. This is applicable to all buildings over 18 m, it states “all materials which become part of an external wall or specified attachment, achieve class A2-s1,d0 or class A1, other than those exempted by regulation 7(3)”.
In order to offer the highest possible fire safety protection, the façade system should meet Euroclass A2. For full fire protection of the outer wall system.
Maximum fire safety for your facade projects
Stamisol Safe One: High-performance façade breather membrane behind cladding in Euroclass A2-s1,d0
Specifying an Euroclass A2 classified breather membrane should form part of any overall facade fire strategy
To maintain the functionality of the insulation over a long period of time, facade membranes have UV protection and are used as a water-bearing layer and reliable weather protection. These are also open to diffusion in order to ensure the dehumidification of the building via the rear ventilation level.What’s often not to be considered, is the fact, that facade membranes can cover a large area of the building envelope and form part of the crucial 'fire safety layer' within the external wall system, this can cause a high risk for fire safety if not supplied to a Euroclass A2-s1,d0 design. Addressing the issue of the right facade breather membrane should therefore form part of any overall facade fire strategy.Whilst today, according to Approved Document B Regulation 7(2) vertical breather membranes are still exempt from A2 materials, which form part of an external wall. An essential reason is, that latest technologies with facade membranes in Euroclass A2-s1,d0 classification aren’t taken into account for these regulations.
A complete external wall system in Euroclass A2
With Stamisol Safe One facade breather membrane (classified Euroclass A2-s1,d0) it is possible to design a rear-ventilated external wall system completely in Euroclass A2.It reliably protects against fire spread in the rear ventilation level and with minimum smoke during the evacuation process. It enables architects to combine maximume fire safety with a high degree of design freedom, even for open facade claddings - with up to 50 mm joints or an open area of up to 50 per cent.
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