Timber frame walls and floors: Fire resistance of service penetrations
In This Series
- 9 million tramping feet on a hardwood floor
- Solid rectangular column factors (sawn sections) loads at unit stress
- solid rectangular column factors (planed sections) April 1962
- solid rectangular beam factors (sawn sections) uniformly distributed loads at unit stress (continued) - April 1962
- solid rectangular beam factors (planed sections) uniformly distributed loads at unit stress - April 1962

Although extensive testing of the fire resistance of all forms of timber loadbearing elements has been performed over many years, in almost all cases, the tests have been undertaken on notionally “perfect” elements. For example, service penetrations into, or through, an element have not been included in test panels. In actual buildings, however, there are few loadbearing construction elements which do not have some form of service penetration, eg water pipes, electric cables and ventilation ducts.
Suggested Reading
Upgrading timber joinery doors for fire resistance
This Wood Information Sheet gives guidance on assessing the suitability of existing doors for upgrading to give a 20 or 30 minutes' fire resistance comparable with that of purpose-made fire doors. Upgrading to 60 minutes' performance will rarely be possible.
Upgrading the fire resistance of existing doors is a...
09/01/2020 | Wood Information Sheet
Timber frame and fire
No one who follows the news can fail to have noticed the headlines in both construction press and indeed national media on the subject of timber frame design and fire safety. In this first of a series of articles, Rupert Scott MIFireE, Membership Manager for TRADA, reviews the statistics and...
01/01/2011 | Magazine Article
Surveys of timber frame houses
Professionals undertaking surveys of timber frame buildings should have an understanding of the overall design and typical detailing employed in this form of construction.
The approach to surveying a timber framed house is no different from that used for other methods of construction. There are many similarities with brick...
26/05/2021 | Wood Information Sheet