The challenge
A new apartment complex with around a hundred homes was built on the Maanplein in Den Haag. Every home has the same set of penetrations through the fire separations: the shaft with the toilet waste pipe, the supply and return ducts of the heat recovery (MVHR) unit, the water supply and return pipes, and the meter cupboard, with cables and pipes through the floor and ceiling. Each type of penetration needs its own solution, and a wrong choice is repeated in a hundred homes.
Our approach
We determined the solution for each type of penetration and carried it out in the same way in every home:
- Shafts: fire-stopped all round.
- 110 mm toilet waste pipes: the penetration sealed all round with a fire-resistant seal and then fitted with a fire collar.
- Heat recovery ducts, supply and return: the openings sealed all round with a fire-resistant seal, with a fire-rated butterfly damper inside the duct.
- Water pipes, supply and return: fire-stopped with graphite where they enter the shaft.
- Meter cupboards: all penetrations through the ceiling and floor sealed, with graphite or a fire-resistant coating depending on the penetration.
The result
All penetrations in the complex's shafts and meter cupboards are fire-stopped, with a suitable solution for each type of penetration. Because every home received the same approach, the work is identical throughout the building.
Key facts
- Project type: New build, around 100 apartments
- Location: Den Haag
- Year: 2023
- Certificates: All handed over on completion
- File: Recorded and kept up to date by us
Services deployed
All certificates handed over, everything recorded
At handover, the client received all certificates. Every provision we installed has been recorded, and we keep those records up to date.
For each apartment and each type of penetration, the file records which solution was applied: in the shafts, at the toilet waste pipes, heat recovery ducts and water pipes, and in the meter cupboards.
A certificate alone does not prove that a provision is right. What also matters is where and how the product was applied. That is why the record for each provision states which system was installed where. This lets the owner show that the fire protection provisions are present and correctly installed.
Is there an inspection by the municipality, fire service or insurer, or is a pipe or cable added later? Then the file shows straight away which system is where, so that a seal that has been opened can be restored with a suitable system.
Fire safety duty of care under the Bbl: what does it mean for owners and users?In the file
- All certificates, handed to the client at handover
- For each provision: the location, the material and the date
- Photos of the work
- Kept up to date by us, also after handover
What this means for your own building
Choose one solution per type of penetration
In a complex with many identical apartments, every choice is repeated dozens of times. A worked-out solution for each type of penetration, set down before the work starts, keeps the work the same and verifiable in every apartment.
Fire-Resistant SealsWhy the toilet waste pipes got a fire collar
A plastic pipe can soften and melt away in a fire, leaving an opening. A fire collar contains material that expands when heated and closes that opening.
Fire collar, sealant, mortar or PU foam: which system suits which penetration?A duct through a fire separation must be able to close
Where a ventilation duct crosses a fire separation, the separation has a hole in it unless something is done. The fire-rated butterfly damper in the heat recovery ducts closes the duct in a fire, so that fire and smoke do not travel through the ventilation to another compartment.
Fire dampersOther work by our team
Middin Kijkduin
Fire-resistant floors and walls, penetrations, air ducts, fire dampers and cable trays during the renovation of a building more than a hundred years old.
Spuistraat Den Haag
An old building converted into three apartments with a shop: steel structure clad for fire resistance, ventilation and penetrations made fire-resistant.
Commercial unit Emmeloord
Steel columns and edge beams boxed in with fire-resistant board cladding, running continuously from floor to ceiling.