The resistance to fire is the most important concern that the client has when receiving a proposal to build a wooden house.
Do wooden houses burn?
Yes. A wooden house will not burn as much or less than one built using traditional technologies and materials.
However, there are differences. If we look at them, we’ll see that wood has a better fire behavior than other materials.
When is a building going down?
When the mechanical and physical characteristics of its constituent parts decay, a structure is prone to collapse.
Steel fire resistance
In a steel structure after only five minutes of being exposed to fire, the steel reaches 500 degrees Celsius. This causes it to burst in a flash, even though it is virtually incombustible.
Another negative aspect of steel structures is their fire resistance. This material irreversibly loses all its static properties. Buildings that are not visibly damaged may also be affected.
Fire resistance for reinforced concrete
Similar to steel structures, reinforced concrete buildings have a reaction class equal to zero. However, because this concrete contains steel and this material, the fire behavior is better. While it is more durable than an all-steel structure in many ways, the risk to the construction is long-term high-temperature exposure.
This type of structure is resistant to corrosion depending on the thickness of the steel reinforcement.
The behavior of wooden structures
Wood has a predictable fire behavior. This is what we can say about it. Wood is slow to burn in the presence of fire. The wood’s surface is affected, but the inside remains intact.
After 240°C reaches the carbonation level of the wood, the external part is transformed into a real protective shell. This has a very low potential for conductive.
The water content found in wood provides a certain resistance to the structure’s innermost layers.
Apart from all the above, wood also has a low-temperature conductivity. This protects metal connections and lines in the plant against the spread of fire.
It is important to remember that low thermal conductivity is also limited, which means that fire transmits slower to elements like curtains, carpets, and furniture.
Wood with other materials
Another important aspect to remember is that prefabricated wooden houses often include other materials that make up the tompagnature or insulation.
These materials are usually organic and increase the fire resistance of the whole structure.
Prefabricated wooden houses are even safer because of the fireproof properties of the materials used to close the sandwich in which the wooden structures have been enclosed. If you are in Michigan, maybe you would love to look into the prefab homes Michigan projects.
Prefabricated wooden houses are fire resistant
Therefore, wooden houses have many advantages over fire:
- They burn slowly.
- They do not suddenly collapse but give warnings regarding visible phenomena that may occur, allowing for timely intervention.
- They have structures that can be repaired in the event of a fire. This allows them to maintain their targeted interventions.
Last but not least, it is important to ensure that wooden houses have sufficient sections. This is because constructions are often built with thinner walls which compromise their fire resistance.
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