The question of penetration movement and its impact on installed firestop products has been a longstanding and re-occurring question in the firestop industry. We have had the protocols in place to evaluate movement in joint firestop listings for many years but continued to lack similar means and methods for through-penetrations. This left designers in a strange position, they could account for movement between a wall and floor, but not between that same wall…

“LEED certification provides independent verification of a building or neighborhood’s green features, allowing for the design, construction, operations and maintenance of resource-efficient, high-performing, healthy, cost-effective buildings.” U.S. Green Building Council At Specified Technologies Inc, we understand the importance of the Green initiative and how it will be shaping our future, which is why we developed an online tool called the LEED Credit Calculator. This…

Sometimes the need to repair a firestop is unavoidable. Inadvertent jobsite mishaps are perhaps the most common culprit that most people would think of as a potential source of damage to installed firestops. However, there is often a need to conduct destructive sampling tests of firestop materials to ensure compliance with the appropriate tested system. The thickness of the firestop material in this…

 The Burn: Beyond Firestop Hosted by John Zalepka Intro Welcome to The Burn, Beyond Fire Stop. Our show is dedicated to life safety and code compliance in the built environment, which puts me on a mission to find the most interesting people in this space to get their unique perspective. Our hope is that…

The topic on the use or requirement of sleeves for through penetration firestop systems is a common inquiry to Engineering Services at STI. In most cases the contractor is being told they must install sleeves for all penetrations and want to know where in the building code this is stated. The fact is the use of sleeves is typically project and…

You may have heard the phrase “There is more than one way to crack an egg”. It is true that essentially any blunt force applied to the brittle shell, no matter where or how, will result in a cracked egg. What if you want to crack the egg in such a way to be able to use the shell to separate…

 Welcome to The Burn, Beyond Fire Stop. Our show is dedicated to life safety and code compliance in the built environment, which puts me on a mission to find the most interesting people in this space to get their unique perspective. Our hope is that our listening audience walks away with an understanding of…

 Welcome to The Burn, Beyond Fire Stop. Our show is dedicated to life safety and code compliance in the built environment, which puts me on a mission to find the most interesting people in this space to get their unique perspective. Our hope is that our listening audience walks away with an understanding of…

Maintaining Fire and Smoke Seals within the structured cabling pathway is an ongoing challenge, juggling the demands of the facility vs the limits of firestop products installed at each wall and floor assembly. Purpose-built firerated and smoke and acoustical pathways such as EZ-Path® eliminated this challenge by making the seal at each barrier maintenance free. However, there exists a significant amount of…