Anyone familiar with the NFPA codes? 1

[clarke1973]

Hello,

I am trying to navigate my way through NFPA 220 and NFPA 5000 to determine the required fire rating of a building that I am designing. It is a 3 storey open car park building in the Middle East - steel framed with precast concrete floor slabs.

The NFPA Codes classify structures into 4 different types - type 1 and 2 consisting of non combustible materials, ranging down to types 3 & 4 having more combustible materials such as timber.
The fire resistance ratings table in NFPA 5000 gives required ratings in hours for each construction type. the problem is that within the table each type 1 to 4 is further broken down into other classifications such as 442 / 332 for Type 1, 222 / 111 / 000 for Type 2 etc..
I cannot for the life of me work out what these 3 letter codes (in bold) mean or what they relate to....

can anyone help with this who has been through this before?

Thanks

 

[CELinOttawa]

The NFPA codes are really an animal onto themselves... They take a lot of work to get into, and it is a steep learning curve. I decided years ago that I won't be concentrating on Fire Engineering, and though we've added a FE to our team and I supervise his work, I won't do it without the support of someone who's got years of experience in the field.

Hopefully someone will come on with a more helpful post, but I would encourage you to contact a suitably trained and qualified Fire Protection Consultant. A letter of classification should run you less than a thousand and be a disbursement to your project. It minimizes your liability and adds to the safety of the project. Win-Win.

 

[Splitrings]

I am not sure where it is in the NFPA document but it looks like the three digit number corresponds to the fire resistance of the bearing wall, structural frame and floor, respectively.

http://www.hhs.iup.edu/cjanicak/SAFE674CJ/SAFE 674 Class 3 2012.ppt

 

[clarke1973]

Splitrings, thanks. That PP presentation explains it well.