Fire break in garage ceiling

[Ackoman]

Hello,


We bought our house in June of this year. It’s a 4 bedroom detached house, built in 1971.


Now the weather is getting colder, it has become apparent that there are some significant draughts in the house and I am trying to track them down. It is very noticeable that the upstairs of the house is colder than the downstairs. The previous owners had new loft insulation and cavity wall insulation put in around 2 years ago.


I am convinced that air is getting in somewhere in the void between the two floors. Yesterday, when I was in the garage (which is under the main bedroom, which has an ensuite bathroom) I noticed that the hole in the ceiling through which the shower waste pipe comes is around 3 times larger than it needs to be, exposing the void between the floors to some lovely cold garage air which presumably is then percolating throughout the house.


Hopefully, I’ve correctly inserted the picture into this post.

https://imgur.com/gallery/NeyWy

Possibly of more concern – doesn’t the large hole remove the ceiling’s “firebreak” qualities? And shouldn’t this have been picked up by the surveyor? (we paid for a Homebuyers survey, and not just a simple valuation).


If this is indeed dangerous, as I suspect, what we can do to remedy it?


Thanks,


Ackoman

 

[^woody^]

Yes
Yes
Stick some plasterboard over it

 

[theprinceofdarkness]

First thing to do is is have have a squint around the waste pipe. The whole of the under floor voids should be be packed out with glass fibre insulation so tight you can't get your hand down the side of it. If you fix this it will reduce your heating bill.
I would sacrifice the ceiling boarding to accomplish this,lever them off, its a garage not a kitchen. If you don't snap the boards, just rescrew them on with the new screws in a slightly different place.
You are correct about your fire resistance, but it is often ignored by people who should know better. Think of all those down lighters displayed in supermarkets and how few fire protection boxes are displayed. . . .
I would bend up some sheet steel, should be thicker then food tin cans, say, .5mm thick, so its a nice saddle under the pipe with plenty of excess each end. Now make or buy some "sand bags". Use the thinnest paper bags you can find and fill some with sand. You stuff these up around the pipe with plenty at the top (just under the floor boards). The theory is that if the bags get hot enough to catch fire/degrade, the weight of the top one compress the whole stack and the loose sand then fills the hole. This is used to seal seal cable ducts against fire spreading. Finally screw your saddle on underneath to keep the bags in place. You can buy these sand bags, cos' I have seen this system in use. sweet little things they are too, sat 5" X 2" X 1".
Frank

 

[Ackoman]

First thing to do is is have have a squint around the waste pipe. The whole of the under floor voids should be be packed out with glass fibre insulation so tight you can't get your hand down the side of it. If you fix this it will reduce your heating bill.
I would sacrifice the ceiling boarding to accomplish this,lever them off, its a garage not a kitchen. If you don't snap the boards, just rescrew them on with the new screws in a slightly different place.
You are correct about your fire resistance, but it is often ignored by people who should know better. Think of all those down lighters displayed in supermarkets and how few fire protection boxes are displayed. . . .
I would bend up some sheet steel, should be thicker then food tin cans, say, .5mm thick, so its a nice saddle under the pipe with plenty of excess each end. Now make or buy some "sand bags". Use the thinnest paper bags you can find and fill some with sand. You stuff these up around the pipe with plenty at the top (just under the floor boards). The theory is that if the bags get hot enough to catch fire/degrade, the weight of the top one compress the whole stack and the loose sand then fills the hole. This is used to seal seal cable ducts against fire spreading. Finally screw your saddle on underneath to keep the bags in place. You can buy these sand bags, cos' I have seen this system in use. sweet little things they are too, sat 5" X 2" X 1".
Frank

Hi,

Thanks for the advice. Do you mean this sort of thing?

http://www.fireprotectiononline.co.uk/fire-stop_pillow.html

Cheers,

Ackoman

 

[^woody^]

I would bend up some sheet steel, should be thicker then food tin cans, say, .5mm thick, so its a nice saddle under the pipe with plenty of excess each end. Now make or buy some "sand bags". Use the thinnest paper bags you can find and fill some with sand. You stuff these up around the pipe with plenty at the top (just under the floor boards). The theory is that if the bags get hot enough to catch fire/degrade, the weight of the top one compress the whole stack and the loose sand then fills the hole. This is used to seal seal cable ducts against fire spreading. Finally screw your saddle on underneath to keep the bags in place. You can buy these sand bags, cos' I have seen this system in use. sweet little things they are too, sat 5" X 2" X 1".

Check out the DIYnot Awards in December. I'm nominating this in the "Most bizarre waste of time" 2016 category. Even for 2017 and 2018.

Thanks for the advice. Do you mean this sort of thing?

No they wont work for this, they are for other situations.

You just need to board the hole.
In a fire the plastic pipe melts in any case (especially that big SVP at the back there), leaving a big hole in the ceiling. The thing is, by that time you are out and the firemen are spraying water on it.

Board over it or research on a flush plasterboard repair.

Avoid sand egg timers. They are for breakfast time.

 

[John D v2.0]

That post was awesome! Heath Robinson in action! And the people who have non conformist ideas are usually the ones coming up with new things.

 

[John D v2.0]

Oh I forgot to make my actual point, yes just go around your floor void perimeter blocking all the holes, when we bought this place I was lazy and just squirted that horrible expanding foam in all the holes. But if you have more time, try to match the material.

 

[theprinceofdarkness]

" No they wont work for this, they are for other situations.

You just need to board the hole.
In a fire the plastic pipe melts in any case (especially that big SVP at the back there), leaving a big hole in the ceiling. The thing is, by that time you are out and the firemen are spraying water on it."

That is if the holes dials 999 and the foam does not drip out of the hole. The cable duct hole blockers were always built of the ground, under the computer flooring . Sort of like a "wall" of much smaller bags with the big plastic duct coming through it near the bottom.
The most bizarre prince of darkness.

 

[^woody^]

Nope, I can't visualise this Saharan Dream at all. I'll have some extra mature cheddar tonight and see what I can come up with.