Brick Veneer Walls - Fire Rating

[John Bowman]

Under standard building conditions a Brick Veneer Wall using 4" standard brick is rated?

[phinsperger]

....

[Marcel R. Cyr]

John you are good at these polls.

I would like to add this below to help the members or some anyways.

Constructing brick veneer over existing walls of combustible materials will decrease the possibility of externally initiated fires. Typical brick veneer wall assemblies have fire resistance ratings.

Brick veneer wall assemblies can attain fire ratings. The combustible wood stud must be protected from fire on each side by noncombustible materials that meet the required fire rating. A 4 in. (100 mm) nominal brick wythe provides a fire rating.

Brick masonry has superior fire resistance. Building codes may require that exterior walls have a fire resistance rating based on fire separation distance, size of building and occupancy classifications. They may require protection from one or both sides, depending on whether the fire separation distance is more or less than 5 ft. respectively.

A nominal 4” brick Wythe has a fire resistance period of ______ minutes resulting in a __ hour fire resistance rating and can provide this protection for the exterior surface of the wall.

Hope this helps some.

Marcel




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[Marcel R. Cyr]

This is just for understanding of fire ratings and endurance.

http://www.awc.org/Publications/dca/dca4/DCA4.pdf

Marcel

[David P. Valley]

I'm surprised to see such varied answers....

If you all look in Chapter 7 of 2003 IBC there is a prescriptive method for calculating fire resistance of a wall assembly.

[Marcel R. Cyr]

Thought I would add this in to help.

One-hour wood construction is the most common of the rated construction built today. Yet many of the construction techniques and detailing are not commonly understood or practiced. Rated construction is a system of building components which protect a building from fire. A whole building can be of rated construction or just one element of a building. It is essential that the rated construction act as a whole. Integrity of the construction around openings and through wall and floor cavities is essential regardless of the purpose of the rated construction.

Purposes of one-hour construction:

• Higher level of overall fire safety than in non-rated building construction (may be required due to occupancy or in order to obtain larger building area or height).
• Protection of exterior walls located near property lines.
• Separation of occupancies and special use areas.
• Separation of building areas.
• Protection of means of egress (exiting) system.
• Protection of vertical penetrations through a building (shafts and exit enclosures).

Marcel

[tsaunders]

Be careful, just because a material may be very difficult to burn, does not mean it has a fire rating.
Typically the fire rating is of the entire wall system, brick/exterior sheathing/studs/insulation/interior sheathing/ glass etc.

The material used for the opens, windows/doors also have to be taken into consideration.

[John Bowman]

C. was the correct answer.

A 4" brick veneer wall has a 1-hour fire rating. If the interior walls are properly covered the total wall fire rating is increased to 2-hour.