Spec Finish

Technical Standards can be our friend or risk that comes back to bite us unless we get to know them; here I lay out what they are, where to find them, how to use them and what to look out for. STANDARDS ANDWHY WENEEDTOKNOWTHEM 18 www.thefis.org S TANDARDS have been used for centuries to explain what’s expected especially where repeat operations or performance is important. The first British Standard was written to standardise rails used for trams so that the same standard rail could be manufactured by many companies. According to Wikipedia, there are now over 27,000 active UK standards. Standards set out the agreed principles or criteria so that people and organisations can make reliable assumptions about a product or a service. They are often used in guidance as a way of demonstrating compliance, for example, the Building Regulations in the Approved Documents. These standards often take committees years to develop through drafts that go through a rigorous peer review process by industry before they are published. To address areas where fast track documents are required, British Standards Institution (BSI) developed a Flex system which has been used recently to develop competence standards alongside the Building Safety Act. Standards are developed following a business case, individual organisations can commission a Publicly Available Specification (PAS) as a way to establish a new approach. Standards are categorised as Codes of Practice, Methods and Guides. It’s important to understand that the standards are not Law but can be used to demonstrate that you have adhered to legislative requirements by using products tested to the required standards. The BSI 1 is the National Standards body for the UK and it is responsible for working with European bodies where the prefix EN is used and the International Standards organisation where ISO is the prefix. BSI has moved its standards to an online portal called BSI Knowledge 1 where standards can be searched and used. Standards in the Finishes and Interior Sector Standards in our sector include guides, code of practice and methods, and are used to describe test standards, codes of practice for design and installation of products, these can include BS, BS EN and BS ISO standards for example these may be familiar: • BS EN 1364-1: Fire resistance tests for non-loadbearing elements. Walls • BS476-22: Fire tests on building materials and structures. Method for determination of the fire resistance of non-loadbearing elements of construction • BS EN 13964: Suspended ceilings. Requirements and test methods • BS EN 13914-2: Design, preparation and application of external rendering and internal plastering. Design considerations and essential principles for internal plastering. • BS 8000-8: Workmanship on construction sites. Design and installation of dry lining systems. Code of practice. These standards should be referenced in specifications so that those responding to tenders can be assured they are pricing the right thing and that clients are assured that they have products that are compliant with the guidance in the approved Documents to the Building Regulations. The areas of risk are around terminology and can also be in choosing to supply a product to the wrong standard, although currently, this may not come to light until the Operations and Maintenance documents (O&M) are produced, evidence of compliance will be required before work can start by getting through Gateway 2 for buildings in scope under the Building Safety Act, which should avoid miss understandings before they occur. What I mean by terminology is apparent in both fire performance and acoustic performance, leaving aside the obvious fireproof and soundproof, which are marketing terms and have no basis in tested performance, fire performance should be described as fire resistance or reaction to fire and acoustic performance as airborne sound reduction or sound absorption. In both cases it’s easy to see that a product designed to meet a reaction to fire classification would not perform as a compartment wall where fire resistance is required, and the same for a classified sound absorber where sound insulation is required. Let’sexplore the termclassificationand classes, whicharebeingdebatedas you read this byGovernmentwhich is considering removing theNational classes asevidenceof compliance In ApprovedDocumentB (firesafety). Classifications are calculated in accordance with a standard using evidence from a specified test. Let’s look at Fire Resistance and why this is so important. Partitions tested using BS EN 1364-1 (Fire resistance tests for non-loadbearing elements. Walls) are classified using EN 13501-2 (Fire classification of construction products and building elements. Classification using data from fire resistance tests, excluding ventilation services) and the results are expressed as E (integrity) and I (insulation). That is to say, the partition won’t allow fire to penetrate it or hot gasses for a given time (E) the temperature won’t exceed that prescribed for a given time (I). This is fundamentally different from our current National Class of FR which is derived directly from a single test in accordance with BS476- 22 (Fire tests on building materials and structures. Method for determination of the fire resistance of non-loadbearing elements of construction). The two tests are subtlety different, and the results are not transferable so a Classification using EN 13501-2 cannot be used to classify a system tested using BS476-22. The BS EN 1364-1 test requires insulated thermocouples to be used resulting in a Joe Cilia, FIS Technical Director