Walraven firestop used on The Shard

Using the Walraven Pacifyre® MKII Firestop on The Shard

The Shard, as many of you will know, is a 95-storey skyscraper situated in London. The construction of it began in 2009 and was opened to the public in 2013. It has since been home to a number of restaurants, hotels, offices and retail shops. Throughout the development of The Shard thousands of products were specified, all of which had to meet building regulations, one of these being the fire stopping products.

What are fire stopping products?

The core of The Shard is made up of many compartments that act to prevent the spread of flames, smoke and heat in the event of a fire. Fire stopping products are used to provide fire protection to each compartment, sealing any gaps that could possibly lead to fire passing through compartments. Buildings must ensure that any openings and gaps are fire stopped to restrict both lateral and vertical fire spread.

The requirements of the passive fire protection solution

The original fire stop that was specified for The Shard was not, in fact, a Walraven product. Generic fire stop solutions were specified for use throughout the building. However, due to the significant movement expected of the building structure and pipework within the risers, the District Surveyor for the London Borough of Southwark raised concerns that a generic fire stopping solution for the riser breakouts may not be effective, and that the contractors should seek advice about this.

The problem faced with the firestop Due to the movement expected and the arrangement of pipework in the risers, a specialist passive fire protection product was required. The product would have to be effective in allowing the pipes to move without failing, and could also be easily installed on multiple pipes situated very close together. The sub-contractor onsite had previously used the Walraven Pacifyre® MKII Fire Sleeve on another project and knew that the specification of the firestop could fit the bill and that it was easy to install. As a result of this, they approached us for advice. The solution Upon speaking to the sub-contractor, we were asked to discuss our fire stopping solution with the Consultants and the District Surveyor. There were six main concerns that they wanted to ensure the installed firestop was able to deal with: Movement of both the building in general and the pipework itself Provide a cold smoke seal Provide a hot smoke seal Be effective under building vibration Minimise the conduction of noise Provide a suitable gap filler The Walraven technical team were able to provide evidence that our Pacifyre® MKII Fire Sleeve would effectively deal with all of the required situations, as well as being easy to install on multiple pipes situated close together. After a meeting with the Consultants, they chose to change the specification to the Walraven fire stopping product for use throughout the risers and riser breakouts . On site training was provided by Walraven for the installation, and post-installation checks were also carried out. You can download a full PDF version of this case study by clicking on the button below. Download now

Pacifyre® sleeves can be seen on floor penetration. Anchor shown to indicate level of support given to the pipework throughout the riser. Pacifyre® visible on 600mm pipe. Basement plant room.

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Learn more about fire stopping

Our complete online fire stopping guide includes everything you need to know about passive fire protection:

• An overview of fire stopping
• Fire stopping products from Walraven
• Brief, case studies that have used Walraven firestops
• Resources to help you when fire stopping`

Talk to our experts

The Walraven team have over 30 years’ experience in fire stopping. They have worked on huge fire stopping projects such as The Shard and are experts in both new build projects and remediation. They are willing to discuss your fire stopping projects and assist you with problem-solving, technical design and more.