Every specifier who hears “EPS” thinks of a facade fire. It is the right question to ask. So we built an 8.5 metre wall, lit a timber crib in the window, and let it burn.
The Terraco EIFS Alpha System — Technopol EPS insulation, Terraco render — passed all three international performance criteria on a single burn.
| Criteria | Temperature | Flame spread | Mechanical |
|---|---|---|---|
| BR 135:2013United Kingdom | Pass | Pass | Pass |
| LPS 1852:2014LPCB | Pass | Pass | Pass |
| AS 5113:2016Australia | Pass | Pass | Pass |
FIRELAB, report FTC 21/033, issued 22 June 2021. Tested to SANS 8414-2:2017 — the test method for non-loadbearing external cladding fixed to and supported by a structural steel frame. The report is confidential; a declaration of the result is available on request.
EPS did not pass this test because EPS is safe. It passed because the system is detailed.
The insulation on that rig was 50 mm of fire-retardant EPS. On its own, behind a render, a continuous EPS layer up the face of a building is a chimney — and that is exactly the failure the world has learned to fear.
What stops it is the fire break. On this system a 300 mm wide, 50 mm thick band of Technopol 130D StoneWool is bedded into the insulation layer at every slab level, and again around the opening. The fire reaches the break and stops. It is the least glamorous component in the build-up and it is the one doing the work.
Every line below is read out of the test report. Nothing is inferred.
| Structural frame | Light steel frame, galvanised, 0.8 mm. Anchored to the slab at 600 mm centres, top and bottom. |
| External sheathing | 10 mm MgO board, fixed with 8 x 38 mm wing-tek screws at 200 mm around each board. |
| Cavity insulation | 89 mm Technopol 130D StoneWool, floor to soffit at every level, including a 980 mm upstand. Glass-wool cavity batt. |
| Internal lining | Siniat Fire Check plasterboard, skimmed, 50 mm fibre tape to the joints. |
| Wall thickness | 175 mm. Rig height 8.5 m; main wall 3.1 m wide, return wall 1.96 m. |
| Board joints | Weathercoat 412 with Terramesh fibreglass reinforcement. |
| Insulation | Technopol LiteCel / FRCel EPS, grade FR100 HD 20DV, 50 mm, in 1 200 x 600 mm boards. |
| FIRE BREAKS | 300 mm wide x 50 mm thick Technopol 130D StoneWool, applied onto every slab. A further 150 x 50 mm StoneWool break around and inside the combustion-chamber opening. |
| Adhesive | Styrobond DP. |
| Mechanical fixing | 6 x 85 mm Class 4 tek screw with a 0.8 mm Class 4 washer. |
| Reinforcement | Terramesh fibreglass mesh in Styrobond DP. |
| Finish | Pigment primer, then Terraco Granule Fille 1.5 mm Sil. |
FIRELAB's SANS 8414 facility, CSIR campus, Pretoria.
A fire result is only worth what its scope says it is worth. This is the scope, in FIRELAB’s words and ours.
Result dated 22 June 2021. Tested by FIRELAB (Building 28, CSIR Campus, Pretoria) for Technopol SA and Terraco South Africa. Specimen installed by Futurecon.
A facade is an assembly, and so is a facade fire test. Four companies built the wall that burned, and the result belongs to all of them.
The FRCel EPS insulation, and the 130D StoneWool fire breaks at every slab — the components that decide whether the fire climbs.
The Styrobond basecoat, the Terramesh reinforcement and the Granule Fille topcoat. An international coatings manufacturer, operating in over 30 countries.
The 0.8 mm galvanised light steel frame the whole system is fixed to — and the substrate this result is scoped to.
Built the specimen on FIRELAB’s rig, to the system drawings. A facade fire test is a test of workmanship as much as of materials.
Send us the section. We will tell you where the breaks go.
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