Fire Rating for Container Houses

Fire is the requirement most often reduced to a single number in a specification: "Class A panel". That number describes one component, while the building's performance depends on layout, joints and escape.

Panel classes

Layout decisions that matter more than the class

• Separation: distance between blocks, and between a block and a boundary or a storage area.
• Escape: travel distance to a protected exit, door widths, and escape windows in sleeping rooms.
• Detection: smoke alarms in each sleeping room and heat or smoke detection in corridors.
• Services: sealed penetrations for cables and pipes, and fire-rated boards around electrical panels.
• Storage: gas cylinders and fuel stored away from accommodation, in a separate enclosure.

Where ratings are defeated

A rated wall with an unsealed door, a cable tray passing through a panel without a fire stop, or a kitchen extract duct penetrating the roof will all fail the intent of the specification. The inspection should look at the holes, not only the panels.

Specifying it properly

State the panel classification with the test standard, the required separation between units, the detection and alarm specification, and the escape strategy. Then ask the supplier for the assembly test report and the fire-stopping detail for every penetration type in the design. For accommodation projects, add the local authority's requirements to the same document so the factory builds to one list.

Related: insulation comparison, electrical and plumbing, structural loads.