Tech Coating’s FBL-100 fire proof paint has made the leap to provide a fire rated solution for structural mass timber elements. It is compliant, quick and easy to apply and environmentally friendly.

Timber buildings pose the greatest fire risk and hazard when under construction. The goal was to offer a solution that provides fire safety as early as possible during construction, as soon as the building is watertight.

Tech Coatings aimed for a robust encapsulation solution (limiting a structural element to below its deemed failure temperature <300°C) for structural mass timber floor and wall systems, which protects the elements from fire as well as from contributing to the overall fuel load.

To deliver a tested and endorsed system, Tech Coatings ran a sequence of six indicative and two full scale (loaded) tests at FTS Laboratory in Auckland in accordance with AS 1530.4:2014.

Tech Coatings first benchmarked the performance of a CLT midfloor by itself and consequently confirmed the protection the intumescent coating system added in various test setups related to the actual build phases.

Tech Coatings tested FBL-100 with a DFT of 1000μm using an XLAM and Redstag C3/105mm CLT wall and floor system.

The two loaded full scale encapsulation tests for the wall and floor were installed in accordance with NCC DTS clause C1.13a (Australia). Both tests were terminated at failure, which showed an Encapsulation Rating of 45 min and a robust 90/90/90 FRR.

Two of the build phase related indicative tests included service penetrations and passive fire stopping and two others a finished system including insulation and installed linings (in accordance with the GIB specification).

All the above indicative tests showed that the intumescent coating, integrated into a setup with other complementary components, enhances the overall performance of the system and contributes significantly to its FRR.

After successfully completing all of the above tests, Tech Coatings is now confident to provide an Encapsulation Rating of 45 minutes for structural mass timber wall and floor systems.

Advantages of the system:

• Early protection — earlier than any other solution
• Supports sequencing
• Does not limit the flexibility of architectural design
• Cradle to Cradle — low environmental impact
• Saves substantively on time required to install
• Easy and clean application