Compartment floor
The spread of fire can be restricted by sub-dividing buildings into a number of discrete, contained compartments.
Fire compartmentation:
- Prevents the rapid spread of fire which could trap the occupants of a building.
- Reduces the likelihood of fires growing and creating a danger to occupants, fire and rescue services, and people in the vicinity of the building.
- Limits the damage caused to a building and its contents.
A compartment floor is horizontal component that forms part of the enclosure of a fire compartment.
Compartment floors are required to provide a minimum degree of fire resistance as set out in Appendix A of Approved document B2 and Appendix A of Approved document B1 (for dwellinghouses). This fire resistance is generally expressed in terms of the number of minutes of resistance that must be provided. Methods for testing fire resistance are set out in BS 476 Fire tests.
Joints between compartment floors should be fire-stopped to maintain the continuity of resistance; and openings for timber beams, joists, purlins and rafters, and pipes, ducts, conduits or cables that pass through any part of a compartment floor should be kept as few in number as possible, kept as small as practicable; and should be fire-stopped. See Fire stopping for more information.
Additional measures may be needed where an atrium, chute, stair, lift and so on passes through a compartment floor.
[edit] Related articles on Designing Buildings Wiki
Featured articles and news
Types of building sensors on BD
From biometric to electrical current, chemical and more.
Government mandates detectors in rented homes
Changes are due to come into force on 1st October 2022.
80% of major government projects are rated red or amber
Heed advice and insight of this report IPA tells the government.
The end of the games but continued calls for action
From the Commonwealth Association of Architects.
CIOB respond to the government call for evidence
For the Levelling Up, Housing & Communities Committee.
How are buildings and their occupants responding to extreme heat?
BSRIA's Technical Director reflects on recent weather patterns.
Landownership in England in 1909
A national valuation to fund old-age pensions.
The world’s largest Commonwealth memorial to the missing.
Long after the end of the defects liability period.
BSRIA Occupant Wellbeing survey BOW
Occupant satisfaction and wellbeing in buildings.
Geometric form and buildings in brief
From the simple to the complex.
Understanding the changing nature of insulation
And the UK Government guidelines.
Three year action plan to improve equity, diversity and inclusion
Commitment agreed to by major built environment bodies.
The Construction Route – what needs to change?
Electrical skills, low carbon, high-tech and the building services revolution.
Deep geothermal power possibilities
Ultra-deep drilling with millimeter-wave beam technology.
BSRIA Briefing 2022- From the outside looking in
Looking at the built environment from space.
Competence requirements for principal contractors and designers
BSI standards 8671, 8672 and 8673.
Bringing life to burial grounds.
From failed modernism to twenty-minute neighbourhoods.
Design chill and design freeze
The gates process and change control.