Achieving acoustical performance with fire safe products

Abstract

Recent serious fires in North and South America have pointed out potential problems with attempts to improve acoustical performance in building spaces at the expense of using acoustical treatments that may have poor performance in fire situations. Foam plastic products, sometimes not designed for exposed use in buildings, can ignite quickly and spread fire rapidly throughout a building space, resulting in fire victims being trapped within the building or not being afforded the needed safe egress time. There are ways of achieving equivalent and even superior acoustical performance without sacrificing fire safety. Acoustical products are available which can add comparable or superior acoustical treatment without the fire hazard associated with exposed foam plastic materials. This presentation is a review of the U.S. code requirements of interior finish materials, the various types of fire tests that are applied to these products, and a discussion of the achievable fire and acoustical performance.