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542 Barry’s Advanced Construction of Buildings
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Transfer own weight and any fixtures and fittings (non-loadbearing)
Transfer building loads (loadbearing)
Allow the passage of light
Allow cross ventilation
Demountability
Fire resistance
The partition may be required to prevent the passage of fire acting as a compartment wall.
Blockwork with a plastered finish provides a good resistance to fire; e.g. a 100 mm block
wall finished with plaster easily offers 2 hours’ fire resistance, and a double skin plastered
blockwork wall will achieve fire resistance of 4 hours. Timber stud and proprietary walls
only offer half an hours’ fire resistance unless they are specifically designed as a fireresisting
structure. There are many fire-resisting plasterboards that can be easily applied to
stud walls in single, double and triple thicknesses. All joints must be effectively sealed with
fire stops. Any gaps, services ducts, ventilation units, doors and windows provide weaknesses
in fire-resisting structures and should be addressed in the detailing. It may be possible
for the fire to pass around the wall under raised floors or suspended ceilings; effective
fire barriers should be provided under and above the wall, if it forms a compartment wall.
Fire-resisting walls should be fire stopped at their perimeter, at junctions with other
fire-resisting walls, floors and ceilings, openings around doors, pipes and cables. Fire stopping
materials include:
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Mineral wool
Cement mortar
Gypsum plaster
Intumescent mastic or tape (intumescent strip)
Proprietary sealing systems
Figure 10.5 provides an example of a fire-resisting partition.
Resist the spread of fire
The surface material should not allow flames to pass across it and should not fuel the fire.
In public buildings, walls should be designed so that the risk of flame spreading across the
surface is minimal. Compartment walls must have a low risk of spread of flame (Class 0).
Accommodate services
Allow for maintenance and repositioning of services. Some proprietary partitions are prefabricated
with conduits, pipework or cables already positioned. Skirting boards and dado
rails are often a good place to provide access for services. Conduits and channels run
behind plastic, metal or wooden boards, and entry boxes are positioned to allow services
to be installed. Alternatively the services would need to be surface mounted.
With timber stud walls, timber grounds can be easily positioned to accommodate electrical
plug sockets, pipework and other fittings. Steel and timber stud walls have become
increasingly popular in flats and offices. However, when installing services within these
walls, care should be taken to ensure that the acoustic and fire-resisting properties of the
wall are not compromised by the penetration of services through the plasterboard. Ideally,
services should be surface mounted to avoid the problem. Alternatively sound-resisting