What you need to know about Fire and Plywood in 2019

There are a lot of questions circulating, in recent times, about fire ratings and plywood in the past few years, so here a little information which will hopefully provide everyone with a few things we know for sure.

Plywood burns.

If you light up a piece of wood (soft or hard) it will basically burn. That isn't in question. What everyone is really struggling with is how long it will burn and where to use it safely, this takes into account a lot of factors like how fast the flame spreads and what the ignition and flash points are.

Firstly, here is a list of the current fire tests.

Currently there are two certifications required with the majority of plywood - the AS/NZS3837 (older version) and the AS5637.1(newer version) but in May 2019 onwards, the newer test AS5637.1 will be the only recognised certification required for plywood - so it would be a good idea to get that updated test before then if that is your market.

When specifying a material for a building, it is advisable to consult your fire engineer and building certifier to determine which Group material can be used in what application prior to writing your spec. This is what determines a product's group rating. All plywood complies to a Group 3 Fire Rating.

The key things you will need to determine: are there surface irregularities, what application the product is being used and if there are sprinkler systems in place are certain areas.

We know that most certification available in the marketplace are for tests on solid board, not perforated. Once a board is perforated or altered, the certificate on the solid board no longer holds true. Stating that the product is made from a Group 1/2/3 product is also not a valid statement.

We also know that if there are layers of products, the product with the lowest group rating trumps all the other products used in the installation process unless the product is tested as a whole system.

Currently, there are many tests being conducted on different materials with perforation patterns to determine if there is a possibility a specific open area % will still meet a group rating standard but unfortunately this is on-going and still a very grey area.

Hopefully when these tests finalise we will be able to shed some more light on this area, but in the meantime, always check with the NCC guidelines and your building certifier just to be safe. It is really important to take this issue seriously and provide your customers and staff with the correct information to take into the marketplace, so hopefully this article has helped to shed some light on the issue.

Reference - woodsolutions.com.au