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FIRE SERVICE AND GENERAL FIRE SAFETY TOPICS => Fire Safety => Topic started by: The Colonel on September 21, 2006, 05:39:16 PM

Title: Fire resistance of UPVC cladding
Post by: The Colonel on September 21, 2006, 05:39:16 PM: Ladies and Gents

I am looking for some information or advice on external upvc cladding and its performance in fire resistance. I am currently looking at a large mobile home park where many of the homes have been clad with what appears to be upvc tongue and grove strips similar size to timber paneling. What I need to know is the upvc or plastic more of a risk from a fire in an adjoining home than the traditional exterior of a home (usally some form of timber)

The site has problems with spacing between the units not meeting the requirements in the model standards (6m). Is this panelling likley to increase or decrease the risk of fire spreading from one unit to the next. I have looked at a paper from BRE but no mention of upvc.

I would be very interested in your views or where I may find some information.

Regards
Colin
Title: Fire resistance of UPVC cladding
Post by: Pip on September 22, 2006, 09:48:20 AM: an article in the fire Engineer journal june 06 'face value' will be a start, while mainly aimed at schools, may be usefull background reading
Title: Fire resistance of UPVC cladding
Post by: ian gough on September 22, 2006, 10:20:42 AM: I can tell you it burns - and very well! That's why there are rules regarding spacing.
Title: Fire resistance of UPVC cladding
Post by: wee brian on September 22, 2006, 01:07:38 PM: In the scheme of things, treating it like timber would be adequate.
Title: Fire resistance of UPVC cladding
Post by: The Colonel on September 24, 2006, 08:29:26 PM: Gents thanks for your posts. Pip as I am not a member of the IFE I am unable to access the article you speak about but thanks. Any other suggestions would be welcome as background info for my risk assessment. I was once in the audiance of a talk given by a sales rep for a upvc window company a number of years ago at which he tried to convince us that upvc windows would not burn until at least 600 Deg and would be good in a fire situation. He went rather quiet when he was informed that on average a room fire could reach 1000 Deg and he dropped the sales pitch.
Title: Fire resistance of UPVC cladding
Post by: wee brian on September 24, 2006, 10:09:26 PM: Like almost all materials UPVC will burn and gives off nasty stuff when it does.

Given all the dodgy assumptions we use when calculating space seperation, treating UPVC like timber will be fine (AD B does it).
Title: Fire resistance of UPVC cladding
Post by: The Colonel on September 25, 2006, 04:10:46 PM: Brian

Thanks for that, reaching for my copy of ADB now.
Title: Fire resistance of UPVC cladding
Post by: wee brian on September 26, 2006, 08:34:55 AM: It simply treats all "combustible cladding as being the same - take the total area, divide by two then treat it as a window.