Fire safety and moisture management in building façades

The Grenfell Tower tragedy in 2017 and Melbourne Lacrosse building fire in 2014 put a spotlight on Australia’s cladding industry, which was discovered to be rife with non-compliant combustible cladding. Amendments have since been made to the National Construction Code (NCC), banning the use of combustible elements making up building façades, although this in turn has led to its own unfortunate set of consequences in regards to the managing moisture levels present inside buildings, connected to the recent preference for non-combustible, non-permeable metal sheathing as a form of weatherproofing.

Passive fire safety experts Promat have recently released a whitepaper examining this issue, looking in depth at these recent changes to the NCC and related regulations, and how they impact the specification of membranes and other water and weatherproofing barriers. Titled Finding the best of both worlds: Fire safety and moisture management in building facades, the whitepaper explains the relationship between non-combustibility and condensation build-up, as well as the varying consequences of insufficient moisture control. Having proven to be an insidious source of structural damage and potential health hazard alike, moisture build-up can, in some cases, be more difficult to deal with than fire.

Article by Promat Australia Pty Ltd – Architecture & Design – Source Link