Firewalls and Their Specifications

Firewalls, also referred to as fire rated walls, are designed to protect your products, personnel, and your buildings. But firewalls may also be a specific requirement of your business, industry, or for building regulation compliance – making it important to adhere to a range of specifications.

The specifications for firewalls, both in temperature-controlled rooms and for other purposes, are individual to the business, industry, and its regulations. So understanding what specifications you require is key to designing a firewall to comply.

What Is a Firewall?

Firewalls are designed and built to protect a building from the spread of fire – comprised of materials to reduce combustibility and flammability, firewalls offer various fire ratings for walls and ceilings. This can include temperature-controlled rooms, if you require a fire rated cold room or ambient room.

You can find out more about what exactly a firewall is and the benefits here!

Firewall Specifications

Firewall specifications are individual to your requirements – just as cold rooms are designed to suit your specific project and processes, firewalls are designed to your specifications. There are two main types of panel systems: fire resistant and fire rated.

Fire resistant panels are commonly used to building fire resistant cold rooms – these panels are manufactured from insulated panels with a fire resistant ‘skin’.  These panels must be built in accordance with manufacturer specifications and are installed different to a ‘standard’ cold room.

Fire rated panels, used to build dividing walls and fire rated boxes, are composite panels made from high density, non-combustible stone wool core between pre-finished steel.

The panel system selected will impact the time they are resistant to fire – but firewalls can be rated from 30 minutes to 4 hours for walls and ceilings dependent on your requirements.

When selecting the specifications for firewalls, it’s important to consider the implications of your insurer’s requirements and if there are building regulations to adhere to. Different firewalls have different classifications for insurance, and you may require very specific requirements for building regs.

MTCSS can supply, design, and install fire rated cold rooms and firewalls – but we will need to understand your requirements for insurance, building regulations, and the fire rating time. If you have a project which needs fire rated panel systems and firewalls, MTCSS are here to help! Call us on 01886 833381, email us at sales@mtcss.flywheelsites.com, or fill in an enquiry form below!