Reaction to Fire

External Cladding: Best Practice Guide

In 2022, Biotecture collaborated with other industry leaders to produce a Living Walls and Fire Safety Best Practice Guide for External Cladding

This guidance details industry best practice for Living Walls to maximise fire safety and demonstrate compliance with the regulations regarding fire safety and external cladding. It includes recommendations on specifications, material selection, including plants, as well as detailing robust irrigation and maintenance procedures to assure of continued compliance.

The summary of Best Practice Guidance states that a Living Wall as external cladding should:

1.  Comply with the relevant requirements of Approved Document B; June 2022 update in accordance with independent third-party testing of the whole system including plants through whole system Engineering Assessments
2.  Only include materials and plants that have been incorporated in destructive third-party Engineering Assessments or that are demonstrably similar in nature in reaction to fire to those that have been part of full system Engineering Assessment tests as stated in the guidance
3.  Include an irrigation system that has been designed, installed, and operated in accordance with the Best Practice Guidance
4.  Always have a proactive maintenance contract in place with a proven supplier who can demonstrate experience of ensuring continued compliance for Fire Safety.

Our System

Independently Assessed

We recognise our responsibility as a cladding manufacturer, installer and through life care contractor to provide assurances that our product is safe. In 2016 we engaged International Fire Consultants Limited (IFC) to provide a full and independent evaluation of our living wall system from a fire classification and safety point of view. We asked them to go beyond a simple BS 476 surface spread of flame analysis (the Biotecture living wall system meets the criteria for class 0) and to carry out a fully comprehensive assessment of our living wall system as would be expected of any cladding material or system.

It is very important to note that not all living walls are alike. Our engagement of IFC was fuelled by the need to provide the following:

• Independent safety assuranceIndependent assurance of the Biotecture Living Wall System with respect to fire. We needed to give our clients confidence that they were working with a safe system and a safe design and build contractor.
• Fully-validated systemA distinction between our well-developed and fully-validated rainscreen cladding system based around a non-combustible growing medium and other living walls that purport to be suitable for use on buildings without robust data to back them up.

IFC proposed, planned and oversaw the testing regime and process for the fire classification of the Biotecture living wall system. The testing was carried out at the internationally recognised Building Research Establishment (BRE).

Independent Conclusion

Direct quote from the conclusions of the IFC Report: “Based upon the reaction to fire testing conducted and described in Section 3, it is the opinion of International Fire Consultants Ltd that, if the Biotecture Ltd Living Wall System, was manufactured, installed and maintained in accordance with the requirements of this engineering Assessment Report, then the following reaction to fire performance would likely be achieved:”

The full IFC Engineering Assessment of Biotecture Living Wall System With Respect to Reaction to Fire Classification PAR/16691/01 is available in the download section and we can provide assurances as required to ensure that the system remains within the specified parameters.

Operational Conditions

If required for further assurance then independent monitoring and recording can be implemented on site with links to the independent BMS. Please contact us for further details of this. We do not want our urban landscapes to be bereft of green infrastructure at a time when they need it the most simply because of a lack of understanding or assurance.

Remember—not all living walls are the same. We take a fully professional approach to validating and supporting our system. This is why we are, without doubt, the market leaders in high profile living walls.