FIRE SAFETY AND BROOF(T4): UPDATES EXPLAINED

In July 2017, following the Grenfell fire, the Chair of the Independent Review of Building Regulations and Fire Safety, Judith Hackitt, issued a report reviewing the Building Regulations 2010. The conclusion: a more robust regulatory system for the construction industry is called for. The British government responded to the Hackitt report by issuing the Building (Amendment) Regulations 2018 – banning the use of combustible materials in the external walls of buildings – and by adapting the Approved Documents that accompany the Building Regulations 2010. These Documents provide practical guidance on how building professionals can achieve compliance. Among them was the Approved Document B (ADB) on fire safety. The 2019 edition of ADB brought along several changes affecting roofing. For one, the principal determinant of external fire performance for roofs is no longer the national classification system BS 476-3:2004, but the European classification system BS EN 13501-5 (which ran alongside the national classification system for years). The latter comes with five European class ratings: BROOF(t4), CROOF(t4), DROOF(t4), EROOF(t4) and FROOF(t4). In what follows, we explain the details of the fire standards for roofs and how they correspond to the old classification system. We will also provide an overview of SOPREMA waterproofing systems that have a BROOF(t4) rating, indicating the highest performance. If you want to know more about Requirement B4 and the recent understanding on the term ‘specified attachment’ that has been reached in line with the new BS8579 ‘Guide to the Design of Balconies and Terraces’, we’d like to refer you to our article on the updated ban on combustible materials.

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