Special Flame-retardant/Fireproof lacquer or oil

DON’T FORGET THE FLOOR

EUROPEAN FIRE SAFETY DIRECTIVES ARE BECOMING MORE MANDATORY

Tassilo Hochstein (CEO/Managing Director Heidelberg Coatings Dr. Rentzsch GmbH -D)

‘Fire resistance is becoming an increasingly mandatory demand with projects.’

Barely two years ago, the German company Heidelberg Coatings, which is located in the city of Heidelberg in the north-west of the German state of Baden-Württemberg, launched its first flame-retardant finish products for wooden floors and cork floors. It did so under the name PROLiGNUM.

There were good reasons for this decision. Standards are getting stricter, so you have to respond accordingly. That applies particularly to the project market, where the use of flame-retardant and fire-resistant lacquers and oils is becoming increasingly mandatory.

CEO and managing director Tassilo Hochstein of this company, which was formed back in 1952, gives more details about the products launched for these floors and goes into more depth about the flame-retardant Natur Hartwachs Fire Protec FP-8713-0112, Natur Reaktiv Öl Fire Protec FP-1387-0112, and Natur 2K Ölfinish Fire Protec FP-8525-0112.

The first product is a single-component wood finish for parquet, based on renewable raw materials. The second is a reactive, hardening, and natural oil where the binding agent consists of durable raw materials. On parquet and wooden floors you achieve much greater scratch resistance than you can achieve with a classic oil coating. The third and last product is a wood finish which is made according to the latest know-how in the field of natural surface coating on wood and is based on renewable raw materials. It is designed for high-traffic surfaces and makes the floor highly waterproof.

Industrial partners especially, but also parquet floor fitters

‘We work mainly for industrial partners, usually for three-layer parquet traders. Moreover, we also supply parquet floor fitters who want to apply a finish on site,’ says Tassilo Hochstein. ‘This range, in which we are heavily committed to the use of ecological components, has developed because clients are still making specific demands.’

‘Fire resistance has become hugely important for various reasons. One of the most important ones is that an increasing number of buildings are being constructed in wood. In addition, there is also an explicit demand from the project market. Think here of buildings for the government, schools, blocks of flats, museums, and such like. Fire resistance is strictly regulated in those categories, so you have to adapt your products accordingly.’

‘We launched our products about two years ago because we saw a clear trend and assumed that demand would continue to grow. In the meantime, that growing demand has been confirmed and that comes as no surprise, certainly not if you also see how the trend towards ecological construction is gaining the upper hand.’

Responding to legislation: CFL and BFL

Obviously, we wanted to know how Heidelberg Coatings has responded to the legislation. ‘Europe is our biggest market and you need permanent certificates to trade there. If we trade outside this market, we send samples which are usually analysed in the testing institute of the country in question and, depending on the size of the client, we help to cover the costs. That has happened recently with a client in Albania, for instance.’

‘It’s important to add that we have our products tested in accordance with both CFL and BFL. Most clients ask for CFL because with BFL the wood has to be at least 5mm thick. Most products in multilayer floors are only 3mm thick and the tendency now is even only 2mm because producers are saving on the amount used due to the rising prices of raw materials. To be absolutely clear, some of our clients work with solid wood, certainly in Belgium where there are still a lot of traditional parquet floor fitters. BFL then comes into play to ensure the correct fire resistance class.’

When it comes to fire safety, people often forget the floor. Yet this part of a building also needs to be considered. We consider the requirements of European legislation and how flame-retardant and/or fireproof lacquers or oils are responding to the legislation.

What you yourself have to realise is that European legislation is becoming more mandatory. At present, legislation takes account not only of the flammability of materials and their potential contribution to any fire, but also of the chances of spreading the fire to other rooms or even to adjoining buildings.

Construction Products Directive

Remember that you have to keep the European Construction Products Directive in mind. This Construction Products Directive includes fire safety as one of the six basic properties of building products (alongside stability, health, user-safety, sound insulation, and energy saving). Buildings, too, have to meet these six requirements, both for new buildings and renovation projects, obviously including the wooden floor.

Three sorts of products

Materials can be adapted in three ways to modify their flammability or fire resistance. Firstly, there are flame retardants, which are used to reduce the flammability of the synthetics used and thereby increase the ‘escape time’. Secondly, there are flame-retardant coatings and/or fluids. If we consider the parquet lacquer specifically, you have to realise that the only function of such a flame-retardant fluid is to reduce as much as possible the contribution of the material on which it is used. To sum up, the fact is that such a parquet lacquer must never have an adverse effect on the fire reaction class. Finally, there is flame-retardant paint. This paint is designed to increase the fire resistance of a building material and consists of a primer, a flame-retardant paint, and a top coat. The specific properties of a flame-retardant paint mean that it protects a flammable surface against the penetration of fire within certain time and temperature limits.

What’s on the market ?

Bona

The European Standard for fire resistance EN 13501-1 sets out seven fire resistance classes from A to F, with A being the best and F the worst. The general designation is usually the following Afl-s1: A = fire classification, fl = floor – designation for floors, s = smoke – smoke development class ranging from s1, the best, to s2, the worst. What is also tested is the entire floor construction i.e. adhesive, type of floor, (e.g. wood, stone, or PVC), and finish. Even if a wooden floor were to obtain a class A test result, it would automatically be put in class B, since class A is reserved for inorganic materials such as stone, metal, or concrete. Various Bona lacquers have been tested in this way, applied to a chipboard (subfloor panel) with a European standard of Bfl-s1, and have all obtained class Bfl-s1, something which is quite possible if you use inorganic materials.

NATUR HARD WAX OIL

colourless/coloured

FIRE PROTECTION

LFGB § 31 ANTI-SLIP EFFECT

ZERO TO HERO

BRAND NEW: PALL-X ZERO 1K

www.pallmann.net

Zero solvents? Zero problems.

Michael Garbe, PALLMANN Technician, Elena Schraut-May, PALLMANN Laboratory Manager Note: This means that Bona lacquers do not worsen the inflammability of the floor, but they don’t improve it either! If the subfloor had a class C or D, the final test result would also have been the same. According to Bona’s information, the following standards apply in Belgium: Cfl for public places and Bfl for fire exits.

Blanchon

Strictly speaking, Blanchon doesn’t bring fire-resistant finishes for parquet floors onto the market (which make inflammable items non-inflammable), but high-grade sealers and oils in Euro classes. Blanchon sealers and oils have unique qualities and don’t owe their characteristics to additives, which are often subjected to a discriminatory health labelling and are added during the production or during use. It should be pointed out that these additives often come in solid form whereby transparent products such as varnishes, sealers, or oils sometimes have a whitish look. On the other hand, we’ve often noticed that the addition of such additives in high-quality sealers results in a noticeable reduction in durability. They operate in all ranges of sealers, namely 2-component and 1-component waterborne polyurethanes and traditional polyurethanes. They have a range of 10 products in two classifications.

Ciranova

Flame-retardant coating products have the function of slowing down or even suppressing the burning process. This is achieved through the elimination of at least one of the elements (fuel-oxygen-temperature) necessary for causing and/or perpetuating a fire. Since both physical and chemical effects have an impact on the fire cycle, products with different properties, compositions, and structures are often combined in the formulation for greater effectiveness. It is important to mention here that they do not use any harmful substances (e.g. halogen). For wooden floors the certification is cited in the CE label (EN14342), especially in the section ‘reaction to fire EN13501-1’. The products are

divided up into classes (Euroclass) on the basis of standardised tests and according to their contribution to fire. These tests are conducted by recognised institutes, and as regards floors the most important one is the ‘radiant panel test for flooring EN ISO 9239-1’. A detail which is not insignificant in this context is the fact that the entire composite is tested, not just the coating itself. And so, the Ciranova products (UN1CO, a one-coat oil, and Fortico 2C, a PU 2-component varnish) are put in fire class Bfls1 (fl for flooring & s1 for minor smoke development) when applied according to the technical regulations and on a substrate which is produced to comply with the standard EN 312:2010-P2. FORTICO is an on-site product and can therefore be applied on site.

Chimiver

ECOSTAR RF 15T is a two-component water-based polyurethane flame-retardant lacquer in line with the D.M. 6 Marzo 1992 following the UNI 9796 norm. ECOSTAR RF 15T is suggested for the treatment of wooden floors and wooden materials only for flooring purposes. The class of reaction to the fire is italian 1. ECOSTAR RF 15T has been formulated in order to meet the highest anti-slip standard requirements for sportive wooden floors. ECOSTAR RF 15T is in conformity with European standards for sportive wooden floors meeting EN14904 standard's requirements. CERTIFIED CflS1 ACCORDING TO EN 13501-1.

Osmo

The world watched in dismay in 2017 as the Grenfell Tower in London was engulfed in flames. Quickly the fire spread over the timber cladding on the high-rise apartment building. As a result of the blaze, consumer demands for fire retardant wood coatings used in construction have grown. To determine the fire classification of construction products and building elements, standardized fire tests are carried out. In these tests, wooden floorboards are treated with maximum 60 g/m² of Osmo Polyx®-Oil. Due to the low amount of coating needed, adding fire retardants will not have a significant effect on the fire behaviour of the flooring. The fire rating is largely determined by the substrate itself. Regardless of whether with or without fire retardants, flooring certified Cfl-s1 (normal flammability) as per EN 14342 and treated with Osmo Polyx®-Oil will achieve the same results.

Photo – Heidelberg Coatings