Fire Resistance of Handcrafted Log Walls

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to study the fire resistance of the handcrafted full-scribe chink-less log wall. Log construction is growing in popularity, but knowledge of its fire performance and availability of experimental fire data are limited. Sometimes when a high fire resistance rating of a log wall is required, the application of a layer of gypsum wallboard is recommended to increase the assembly fire resistance. The experimental research of an untreated log wall proved that the wall can achieve a very high fire resistance rating by itself and additional steps to increase its fire resistance are not necessary. Use of a traditional handcrafted log system provides the comfort level of prefabricated manufacturing, and significant fire resistance without the need for increasing the assembly costs.

Keywords

log wall fire resistance testing load bearing capacity

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

1995 Log Home Production & Construction Report, Log Home Living Association, Chantilly, VA, 1996.

American Society for Testing and Materials , Standard Test Methods for Fire Tests of Building Construction and Materials, ASTM Standard E119-88, American Society for Testing and Materials, Philadelphia, PA, 1990.

Underwriters Laboratories, Inc. , Report on Joint Treatment Materials Used in Nonbearing Log Walls, File R11694-1,-2, Northbrook, IL, August, 1986.

Riipola, K. , Log Buildings Tradition and Development, Proceedings of International Wood Engineering Conference ’96, IWEC’96, New Orleans LA, pp. 4/221–4/224.

DIN 4102, Fire Behaviour of Building Materials and Building Components; Building Components; Definitions, Requirements and Tests, Ausgabe, September 1977.

ISO 834, Fire Resistance Tests—Elements of Building Construction, International Organization for Standardization (ISO), Geneva, 1975.

CSN 73 0855, Stanoveni pozarni odolnosti obvodovych sten (Fire Resistance of Building Envelopes, Test Methods), Ustav pro normalizaci a mereni (Institute for Standardization and Measuring), Prague.

Houdek, D., Fire Resistance of Log Construction. Ph.D. Dissertation, Technical University in Zvolen, 1998, 154 p.

Log Building Standards for Residential, Handcrafted, Interlocking, Scribe-fit Construction, Canadian Log Builders Association, Bellingham, WA, 1995.

10.

Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) Log House Construction Requirements, Ottawa, Canada, 1981.

11.

Jochim, S. , Aplikacia prvkov povodnej regionalnej drevenej zrubovej konstrukcie v novodobej investicnej bytovej vystavbe (Application of Local Log Construction Details in Modern Construction), Diploma’s Project, Technical University in Zvolen, 1995, 80-80 p.