Fire Resistant Wood Decking

Fire resistant balcony decking.

Fire resistant wood decking.

A trex fire defense board is a special type of board used for additional fire resistance. Decks are where fires often start whether from windblown embers or from charcoal falling out of your grill. You may also hear of claims about it having the same fire class rating as concrete. If you are not already familiar with this material it is an exotic hardwood from south america and it is one of the hardest toughest most insect and rot resistant wood on earth.

Batu wood earns the distinction of class a fire resistant decking due to the naturally occurring silica that is present within the wood itself. The four different types are cedar a softwood ipe a brazilian hardwood timbertech a capped composite and azek which is 100 pvc decking. Whether you re using plywood or lumber dricon fire retardant treated frt wood has an unmatched record of protection against flame spread smoke development rot and decay. Untreated wood and wood treated with fire retardant as well as plastic and wood plastic composite products are all combustible and therefore vulnerable to ember and other wildfire exposures.

A fire resistant decking system that has been designed for installation on balconies fire resistant our fire resistant balcony decking boards are class a1 or a2 fire rated depending on the finish chosen and therefore conform to the new uk fire regulations. Untreated boards achieve the fire rating a1. Benefits of batu fire resistant wood decking. To simulate burning embers landing on a deck a wood lattice of a specific size and weight called a brand is set on fire and placed on top of the decking see photo left.

Dricon introduced in 1981 is a class a fire retardant and preservative intended for wood used in interior weather protected construction. The only wood that really can handle fire to any significant degree is ipe. It s a water based post treatment interior exterior fire retardant and wood preservative that penetrates the material and bonds with the cellular structure. As opposed to the standard trex decking which contains wood and plastic fire defense boards contain 50 percent wood and 50 percent polyurethane.

Because of this silica batu wood meets and even exceeds in some cases most of the fire rating criteria set forth by various building codes. On this episode of timbertips we have four different types of decking that we re going to put through a trial by fire and see how they did. Most wood species are rated class c for fire resistance but you can build safer with a class a rated composite decking like ameradeck made from pvc and wood fiber.