A. Buchanan & J. Parker
In April 2012 the NZ Building Code Regulations for Reaction-to-Fire were changed. These changes to Section C3 of the Building Code became mandatory in April 2013.
These new regulations have changed the ways in which the fire properties of timber are assessed when wood is used as linings in most types of buildings in New Zealand. The effect of the changes has been to reduce the number of locations where exposed wood surfaces can be used in new buildings, largely because the new regulations make it less easy for a fire engineer to offer an alternative solution to relax the code requirements.
There are several contributing factors creating difficulty for designers and manufacturers.
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- 2014Vol22Iss4 Buchanan Paper.pdf (543 KB)