Summer '22

FIRE SAFETY
FIRE PERFORMANCE OF GREEN,
BLUE AND BIOSOLAR ROOFS
By Mark Harris, Head of Technical and Operations at
Radmat Building Products, and Chair of GRO.
The Building Regulations
set the Statutory (legal)
minimum requirements for
the construction of buildings in the
United Kingdom, establishing minimum
performance requirements to prevent
the loss of life.
In England, Wales and Northern Ireland,
the Approved Documents provide
guidance on how to comply with
these legal requirements, providing
individual documents for Structure,
Fire Safety, Fall Protection, Access
and Use, Thermal performance,
Overheating, Glazing,
Electrical safety, Site
Preparation, Toxic
Substances, Ventilation,
Sanitation, Drainage
and Heat & Fuel, as well
as the passage of sound. In Scotland
this guidance is provided through
Technical Handbooks.
Following the tragedy of the
Grenfell Tower fire on 14th June
2017, the Building Regulations have
seen extensive review and update,
particularly with regards to the fire
performance of external walls on
buildings over 18m (11m in Scotland)
that contain dwellings, with a
requirement for the external walls to
be constructed of materials that are
either ‘non-combustible’ or ‘very
limited combustibility’ (fire
class A1 or A2 to BS EN
13501-1). The same rules
apply to balconies on
such buildings.
The fire performance requirement
for roofs has not changed since the
introduction of classifications to BS EN
13501-5 into the Approved Document
B in 2006, classifications that relate to
the BS 476-3 classifications that have
been in the Approved Document since it
was introduced in 1965.
To achieve a fire performance
classification to either BS EN 13501-5 or
BS 476-3, testing of a roof construction
has to be carried out to ENV 1187 by
an approved fire testing facility. The
resulting classification report is specific
to the exact construction tested, so,
for example, if you carry out a test that
contains 50mm of PIR insulation, that
test is not relevant to 150mm of PIR
Continued on page 16 >>>
Inset Mark Harris, Head of Technical and Operations
at Radmat Building Products. Main image: BioSolar
installation by Radmat in London.
14 GREENSCAPE SUMMER 2022 • www.greenscapemag.co.uk