Fire Safety of Buildings with ETICS – testing standards, evaluation criteria, and key application elements.
Discussions on the fire safety of buildings insulated with the external thermal insulation composite systems (ETICS) method have been ongoing for years. Calls for tightening the existing requirements have intensified, especially when mineral wool insulation boards were added to the commonly used polystyrene boards in ETICS. To accommodate the significantly more expensive mineral wool in this application, arguments related to “breathing walls,” acoustics, and the differentiation of ETICS systems by their “non-flammability” emerged. Nearly 70 years of experience with the use of ETICS in Poland, and the complete dominance of polystyrene in this application, only deepened the need within certain circles to question these experiences and create new threats. The lack of spectacular ETICS fires in Poland is complemented by the fires of ventilated facades in London. “Too small and outdated NRO” should be replaced by a harmonized and common method for different solutions on a large scale, while durable and safe systems – composed of wool strips – have already been named “fire barriers” before their introduction. The intentional treatment of fire safety for buildings, the devaluation of experience, the creation of imagined threats, and the undermining of fire test results and classifications distract the market participants from changes and trends in construction that could significantly impact the fire safety of buildings and the future of ETICS. It is important to remember that for some parts of the industry, the key element determining the fire safety of buildings will always remain the fire reaction class of thermal insulation and the wool, which is already evolving towards “completely non-flammable.”
Wszyscy prelegenci
Jacek Michalak, Ph.D.
Polish Association for ETICS (SSO)/Atlas sp. z o.o.
Paweł Gaciek, M.Sc., Eng.
Jakub Jędrzejczak, M.Sc., Eng.
Bartosz Michałowski, Ph.D.
Atlas sp. z o.o. / Polish Association for ETICS (SSO)
Anna Panek, M.Sc., Eng.
Building Research Institute (ITB)
Jerzy Rutka, M.Sc., Eng.
Neotherm sp. z o. o. sp. kom./Polish Association of EPS Manufacturers (PSPS)
Łukasz Rymarz , M.Sc.
Ministry of Development and Technology
Kajetan Sadowski, Ph.D., Arch.
Wroclaw University of Science and Technology
Roman Sobczak, M.Sc.
Institute of Building Materials and Concrete Technology sp. z o.o.
Małgorzata Niziurska, Ph.D.
Łukasiewicz Research Network – Institute of Ceramics and Building Materials
Piotr Pawlak, M.Sc., Civ. Eng.
Rockwool/Association of mineral, glass and rock wool manufacturers (MIWO)
Ralf Pasker, M.Sc.
European Association for ETICS (EAE)
Ewa Sudoł, Ph.D., Eng.
Building Research Institute (ITB)
