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FIRE SERVICE AND GENERAL FIRE SAFETY TOPICS => Technical Advice => Topic started by: Ashley Wood on June 28, 2007, 02:22:49 PM

Title: Fire resistance assessment
Post by: Ashley Wood on June 28, 2007, 02:22:49 PM

Can any one advise who I should speak to regarding the carrying out of a fire resistance assessment on a new modular building external walls?

Title: Fire resistance assessment
Post by: wee brian on June 28, 2007, 10:20:17 PM

Go to one of the fire test Labs, BRE, Warrington or Chiltern. There are a few consultancies that do it too.

Title: Fire resistance assessment
Post by: Ashley Wood on June 29, 2007, 09:34:43 AM

Thanks for that. I knew about BRE etc but I was hoping to push the work towards a consultancy.

Title: Fire resistance assessment
Post by: wee brian on June 29, 2007, 11:57:19 AM

Why what's wrong with a test lab?

Title: Fire resistance assessment
Post by: Ashley Wood on June 29, 2007, 03:33:20 PM

I just like the idea of helping a fellow consultant rather than a large multi national conglomerate  : )

Title: Fire resistance assessment
Post by: kurnal on June 29, 2007, 05:13:10 PM

Its got to be horses for courses. If you need test data then you need a specialist laboratory. Even the biggest consultancy cannot give you definitive fire ratings. They can only give you an expert opinion on its likely performance. In one case while still in uniform I took on one of the multi national consultancies who were trying to justify thermoplastic linings in a single staircase block of flats.

When push came to shove their test turned out to involve holding a blowlamp against the material, and when it burned the argument then turned to justify it on the basis of the  volume of smoke and heat given off.

Title: Fire resistance assessment
Post by: wee brian on July 01, 2007, 09:56:57 AM

How are BRE and Chiltern Multinational conglomerates?

Warrington is owned by an International firm but the others are hardly giants.

Title: Fire resistance assessment
Post by: Auntie LIn on July 04, 2007, 05:29:17 PM

Don't expect to get test evidence from a test lab.   Test labs. tend not to spend their own hard-earned cash on testing for the good of all.   Tests which are carried out at the labs. are generally on behalf of a sponsor, for whom the result is a business asset - so if the labs. are giving away their information.........

An assessment is only an expert opinion anyway.   It is not a test.   The people who write assessments for test houses are as opinionated as the rest of us!