FIREPLACE BOARDS

Fireplace board is an intermediate layer designed to help focus the heat in the furnace, which well improves the profitability and efficiency of the fireplace as a whole. To stop your fireplace from being a major source of heat loss you need to insulate inside the chimney from the top and bottom. Fireplace would then be a benign thermal mass inside the building envelope. It is important to install an air barrier behind it after installing insulation but before the fireplace is installed. An air barrier is defined as any durable, solid material that blocks air flow between conditioned space and unconditioned space, including necessary sealing to block excessive air flow at edges and seams and adequate support to resist positive and negative pressures without displacement or damage. Air barrier material behind fireplaces must tolerate heat. Air barrier material can include thin 12.7mm boards such as Promat MONOLUX 500, 12mm Non-combustible PROMAFOUR Promat board or 20mm Promat PROMATECT L500 Calcium Silicate Fire Insulation Board.

FIRE RATING CLASSIFICATION

The fire resistance is always expressed in minutes, usually in classes that are multiples of 30 minutes. Before you choose your product, it’s important to understand the classification process and what each level means in terms of fire resistance and protection. The BS EN 13501-1 classification comprises three ratings. The first is the main Euroclass rating, which will be the letter A1, A2, B, C, D, E or F. A1 is the highest level of performance, while F is the lowest. Flooring materials are followed by the abbreviation ‘fl’ (for example, A1fl). Linear pipe thermal insulation products are followed by the abbreviation ‘L’ (for example, A1L). A1 products are classified as non-combustible. A2 products are classified as limited combustibility, and B to F are classified as combustible in ascending order. The second classification relates to smoke emission during combustion. This is indicated by a rating of s1, s2 or s3, from highest to lowest performance. Smoke emission classifications are not provided for products with an E or F overall rating. The third classification relates to the level of production of flaming droplets/particles during combustion. This is indicated by a rating of d0, d1 or d2, from highest to lowest performance. E-rated products receive a d2 flaming droplet classification. F-rated products receive none. A1-rated products are not given smoke emission or flaming droplet ratings, on the assumption that they make no contribution to fire growth or spread. Occasionally, a building insulation product may focus on a Class 0 or Class 1 rating. However, these classifications do not indicate the combustibility of the product, referring only to limited surface fire performance characteristics. Class 0 is a rating defined in Approved Document B of the Building Regulations 1991. It combines two tests in the British Standard BS 476. The first assesses a surface’s contribution to fire propagation (BS 476-6) and the second assesses the spread of flames across a surface, including distance and time (BS 476-7). Class 1 is a limited classification based on the test in BS 476-7 only. It is important to recognise the limited application of these classifications.

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Picture credit:https://basc.pnnl.gov/resource-guides/walls-behind-fireplaces#edit-group-scope

Video credit:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDiaoxkD3pU