Fire Retardant-Treated Wood: Specification and Use
Continuing Education
Use the following learning objectives to focus your study while reading this month’s Continuing Education article.
Learning Objectives - After reading this article, you will be able to:
- Discover how FR-treated lumber is manufactured, the steps taken to assure proper quality control and the fire retardants used today.
- Learn how to specify FR-treated wood products and make necessary adjustments in design values when used in engineered applications.
- Discover how fire retardants are tested for efficacy and how they provide fire protection.
- Explore how the International codes allow use of FR-treated wood products for specific applications.
- Consider appropriate interior and exterior applications of FR-treated wood.
The purpose of this course is to explain that for some applications, building codes provide for the use of fire retardant-treated wood products as an alternative to noncombustible materials. This course offers a review of fire retardant wood products, including their manufacturer, the applications and types of fire retardants that are available, and the factors that must be considered to ensure fire retardant wood products are properly specified.
