Room integrity testing

Our aim is to get you a pass! Firecheck Contracts Ltd ensures the continued protection of your business by conducting regular room integrity testing.

We provide the necessary Room Integrity Testing to the required standard: NFPA 2001 (2012 ed.) ISO 14520 (2006 ed.) and EN 15004 ( 2008 ed.) We have extensive experience in testing all kinds of enclosures from server rooms in offices to hospital care units. The NFPA and ISO both state that enclosures should be integrity tested upon completion of a gaseous suppression system installation and on an annual basis thereafter.

Our integrity testers are certified by Retrotec and all have obtained Levels 1, 2 & 3 – copies of their certificates are available upon request. All certified engineers are listed on the Retrotec website under the section headed ‘Find a Tester’.

We offer simple solutions to your Integrity Test and leakage problems based on years of practical on-site experience.

We offer design and construction stage consultancy services to help our clients achieve successful test results at the first attempt. We can carry out any remedial works to your enclosure if the extinguishing agent is escaping, thus failing the integrity test – this involves a high standard of sealing to all perimeter walls within the enclosure, and includes the addition of door seals, as well as the sealing of porous block where applicable.

Room Sealing:

Type of Room

The construction of the room is of great importance when sealing the room. Block and concrete walls from slab to slab are more advantageous than plasterboard partitions. The size of the enclosure also plays a significant part: the larger the enclosure, the greater the amount of allowable leakage. The smaller the enclosure, the more difficult it becomes as the amount of allowable leakage decreases.

The criteria to determine whether the amount of leakage is acceptable is based on the time it takes for the interface to reach the highest equipment needing protection – so room height can play a significant part in determining the outcome of the test, especially if the protected equipment is too close to the ceiling or the ceiling void has not been protected. An enclosure will pass the test with a retention time that is equal to or greater than 10 minutes (or 20 minutes in the case of CO2).

It should be noted that small rooms protected with chemical gases such as Novec or HFC227EA (FM200) are inherently difficult to seal adequately to a point where they will pass a room integrity test. Inert gases eg. IG100, IG55, IG541 may be a better option in this case. Please contact us for more information.

Materials

Sealing works should always be carried out using the correct materials for the job eg. intumescent fire batt, mastic and coating. Foam is used by many builders and causes numerous problems. Not only is it very untidy, but it’s also porous. Pillows placed in cable trays do not create an airtight seal and are often taken out due to new cable runs and not replaced.

Sealing

An adequately sealed enclosure will reduce the chance of smoke penetrating from outside the room and will in turn reduce the chance of the gas suppression system being discharged unnecessarily. Additionally an adequately sealed enclosure is also more likely to be able to contain a fire within the room reducing the chance of it spreading through other parts of the building.

Sealing of a gas suppression system enclosure has to be of a very high standard – higher than that of normal building practice. It is always recommended to seal a room from within the enclosure rather than outside (especially with plaster board partitions) to prevent any issues that may arise from the presence of cavity walls.

All holes, cracks and service penetrations in the perimeter walls should be sealed at both high and low level. All plasterboard joints or any other construction joints should be sealed with intumescent mastic. Porous block walls should be painted with intumescent coating. Windows and other glazed areas should be sealed with a transparent silicon. Trunking boxes should be sealed inside at point of entry and all doors should have drop down seals installed at the bottom of each door and weather stripping around the doorframe. All materials used should be fire rated to BS standards.

Fresh air supply’s and Extracts

Fresh air supplies and extracts should not cause any issues if they have dampers which close automatically under fire conditions.

Pressure Relief Dampers

Pressure relief is required once a room is sealed to a high standard. This protects the enclosure’s structural stability. The vent remains closed under normal conditions but, upon a gas discharge, it opens to relieve the excess pressure. The vent then closes again to maintain room integrity.

Of interest to the clean agent installer is the testing of rooms for adequate pressure relief. In all cases, if a room is sealed too tightly, potentially damaging pressure can develop after agent discharge. Using Retrotec FanTestic Integrity software, the door fan test equipment can be used to predict the maximum expected pressure in the room during discharge and will subsequently calculate the amount of venting required.

If pressure relief vents are installed in the enclosure, the door fan test equipment can be used to pressurise the enclosure and test correct design and functioning of the vents. Pressure relief vents rarely open at the prescribed pressures and if they do, rarely open fully as required.

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