We have worked in many different townships with many different building officials and the regulations are interpreted a little differently by each of them. What situations are thermal barriers required?
INSULATION REQUIREMENTS ONTARIO BUILDING CODE CODE
The other important thing to note is that the Ontario Building code pertains only to the structure itself, in the case of a house fire your home is filled with furniture and other products that will create smoke very quickly, its critical to have sufficient smoke alarms in place as a first line of defence. The purpose of the thermal barrier is to provide a 15 minute protection period. The problem is when plastic products burn they create smoke that is harmful. In other words if you were to take a torch and hold it to a piece of spray foam, the foam would burn, as soon as you pulled the torch away the foam would stop burning. Spray foam insulation will not support flame by itself, its self-extinguishing but it will burn in the presence of flame. What is the purpose of a thermal barrier? market for many years and was approved for use in Canada in 2015 and has become very popular for situations where a thermal barrier is required but drywall is not feasible. Other options include Monocote z-3306, a cementitious spray-on product and DC315 an intumescent paint product. There are a few options home owners and contractors have to conform to this requirement. This includes foam board, spray foam, ICF blocks and any other “foamed plastic” products. The Ontario Building Code requires foam insulation products to be protected with a 15 minute thermal barrier if they are inside the building envelope. Thermal barrier is a term used to describe any product that is used to protect something from thermal damage in the case of a fire. With that being said there are situations where spray foam should be covered with a thermal barrier. The function of vapour barriers is a topic all its own, but for this article we just need to know they are not required with closed cell spray foam.Īnother common misconception is that spray foam needs to be covered because it will off-gas, this is also not true, spray foam is a two part product that reacts very quickly and becomes inert within seconds of being sprayed. Firstly lets start by saying closed cell 2lbs density spray foam does not need to be covered by a vapour barrier. This is probably the most commonly asked question we get when we are looking at a prospective project.