Health and safety is one of the most important
aspects of governmental legislation. And,
the UK government takes this job very seriously. Their dedication to developing the laws that promote
the health and safety of their people follows through into almost every corner
of everyday life. It applies to the rules
that must be obeyed within offices. It
applies to the manufacturing methods that can be used to make the products that
we use within our homes. And, it
applies, very definitely, to the ways that buildings can be constructed.
One of the most important aspects of health
and safety building legislation is fire prevention. There are a number of different ways that this
legislation applies within this area, and all are equally important.
What
Is Fire Safety Legislation?
In the United Kingdom, building laws and regulations
are compiled into a group of legislation known loosely as the UK building codes. There are a number of different codes involved
in this legislation, and each one is assigned a letter. Everything that must be regulated when it
comes to building in the UK is contained within these codes. That includes thermal insulation regulation,
ground preparation and any other area that must be regulated when it comes to construction.
Fire safety, insomuch as it applies to construction,
is compiled into Part B of the UK building codes. It is important to note that a lot more goes
into the Part B of the building codes than simply the construction materials
that can be used in the building. It
also relates to the way a building must perform when it comes to the safe evacuation
of humans from a building in the case of a fire. That means that there must be fire escapes
and other measures in place within a building that will assist with this evacuation.
Containing
Fires within Compartments
One of the biggest areas that Part B of the
building legislation deals with is the containment of fire within compartments in
order to ensure that it does not engulf the entire building – and to allow for
the evacuation of people from the building.
It is important to note that a compartment can
mean just about any space within a building – or even the entire structure itself
if the entire building is one large open space.
It can also be something as small as a janitorial cupboard. As long as it is a contained space, it is a
compartment according to the definitions of the building codes.
In principle, it should be fairly easy to
contain fires within compartments; after all, these are areas that can be
sealed off according to definition. However,
it is rarely as simple as it seems that it should be. There are many reasons for that, including the
windows that open to refresh that all important oxygen supply that all fires need
to grow and spread. More importantly, there
are wires and pipes that move between compartments within a building. These are, usually, essential services, and it
would be simply inefficient for them not to be shared between all the different
rooms within a building. As such, extra measures
must be taken in order for the spread of fire between compartments.
Introducing
Pipe Sleeves and Pipe Collars
Working with the understanding that pipes must
pass through walls to different compartments, action steps must be taken to prevent
the spread of fire through these apertures.
Of course, these pipes can be wrapped with insulation. These are, usually, known as pipe wraps or pipe
sleeves. These items are insulation that
is wrapped around the pipes before they pass through the aperture in the wall. Often, these pipe sleeves are intumescent,
which means that they expand when subjected to high levels of heat. This process closes off the pipe which means
that compartments are sealed.
However, the application of these insulated
pipes through and insulated wall still leaves an opening, or a gap. Additionally, not all insulated sleeves are intumescent,
so pipe collars are used. These are
fitted over the insulated pipes and then affixed to the wall around the aperture
through which the pipes are fed. Together,
pipe sleeves (or pipe wraps) work with pipe collars to ensure that compartments
are sealed off from one another. This is
vitally important in the event of a fire as the spread of fire stands in the middle
of the safe evacuation of people from the building.
Ultra
Universal Pipe Sleeves
Fitting and installing pipes with a
combination of pipe wraps and pipe collars is an easy enough process,
especially for experienced technical insulation specialists. However, there are new products available on
the market that do the same job as this combination. The Ultra Universal Pipe Wrap and Ultra
Universal Pipe Sleeves are intumescent and designed to expand to 30 times the initial
size of the product in the event of a fire.
And this is crucial because it means that pipe collars affixed to either
side of the wall are redundant.
These products work in roughly the same way
– and are applied easily. They wrap
around the pipes in the same manner as traditional pipe sleeves. Then tape is applied to keep these products in
place. After pipes fitted with Ultra Universal
Pipe Wraps are inserted through the aperture in the wall, they are held in
place through the use of a sealant, or glue.
It is as simple as that.
However, it is worth keeping in mind that even
though the application of pipe sleeves, pipe collars or the latest Ultra
Universal Pipe Wrap is fairly simple, it cannot be done by just anyone. That is because there are so many rules,
regulations and legislation surrounding fire safety measures in construction. A registered government official must certify
each step of the process. If it has not been
done correctly or there are any gaps in fire safety, then the job will need to be
redone. And that is something that no one
is interested in doing – just as no one is interested in the loss or detriment
to human life.
For further information on pipe wraps and
pipe sleeves, please follow the link below:
