When installing a fire smoke exhaust skylight, how can you ensure its tightness and fire integrity with the building structure?
Publish Time: 2025-03-25
Fire smoke exhaust skylight is an important part of the building fire protection system. Its function is to quickly exhaust thick smoke and high-temperature gases when a fire occurs, buying precious time for personnel evacuation and fire rescue. However, if improperly installed, the connection between the skylight and the building structure may become a weak link for smoke leakage or fire spread. Therefore, during the installation process, it is necessary to strictly control the tightness and fire integrity to ensure that it complies with fire regulations and performs its intended function.
Key measures for structural tightness
When installing a fire smoke exhaust skylight, first ensure that its connection with the building structure (such as the roof or exterior wall) has good tightness to prevent rainwater leakage and air infiltration. A common practice is to use high-performance sealing materials such as fireproof silicone, weather-resistant glue or elastic sealing strips between the skylight frame and the building structure. These materials not only need to have good adhesion and weather resistance, but also should be able to adapt to slight deformation of the building caused by temperature changes or settlement, and avoid cracking or falling off after long-term use.
For skylights with metal frames, special attention should be paid to the sealing of bolts or welds during installation. Fireproof gaskets should be used at bolt joints, and fireproof sealant should be applied after tightening to ensure no gaps. Welding parts should be treated with anti-rust and checked for pores or cracks to avoid affecting the overall sealing. In addition, fireproof strips or flame-retardant foam should be used to fill the edge gaps of skylight glass or panels to ensure airtightness without air leakage.
Methods to ensure fire integrity
The fire integrity of fire smoke exhaust skylight refers to its ability to prevent flames and high-temperature smoke from penetrating for a certain period of time during a fire, preventing the fire from spreading through the skylight to other areas. According to national standards (such as GB 50016 "Code for Fire Protection Design of Buildings"), the fire resistance limit of smoke exhaust skylights is usually required to be no less than 1 hour, depending on the building type and fire partition requirements.
To ensure fire integrity, the frame and opening parts of the skylight must be made of fireproof materials or undergo fireproof treatment. For example, the metal frame can be painted with fire-resistant paint, and the glass part should be made of fire-resistant glass or wired glass to ensure that it will not break quickly at high temperatures. In addition, the gap between the skylight and the building structure must be filled with fire-resistant sealing materials, such as fire-resistant rock wool, intumescent fire-resistant sealant or fire-resistant mud. These materials will expand at high temperatures, fill the gap, and effectively block the spread of flames and smoke.
During the installation process, special attention should also be paid to the setting of the fire isolation zone between the skylight and the building structure. For example, in steel structure buildings, fireproof boards or fire-resistant paint should be installed around the skylight to prevent the steel beam from deforming in a fire and causing the skylight to fall off. For concrete structures, the reserved holes at the skylight installation site should be filled with fire-resistant mortar or special fire-resistant sealing materials after construction to avoid the formation of a chimney effect.
Construction quality control and acceptance
In order to ensure that the sealing and fireproof integrity meet the design requirements, strict quality control must be carried out during the construction process. First of all, the fire protection test report and product certificate of the skylight should be checked before construction to ensure that it meets the fire protection regulations. Secondly, during the installation process, the supervisor should focus on checking whether the filling of the sealing material is uniform and without omission, whether the fireproof sealing is tight, and whether the bolts or welding parts are firm.
After the installation is completed, air tightness and water tightness tests are required to simulate the sealing effect under windy and rainy weather conditions. At the same time, linkage tests should also be carried out to ensure that the skylight can be opened normally when the fire alarm signal is triggered and work with the smoke exhaust system. Finally, during the fire acceptance, the relevant departments will check the fireproof sealing, fire resistance limit test report and linkage function of the skylight to ensure that it meets the requirements of the fire protection regulations.
The sealing and fireproof integrity of the fire smoke exhaust skylight are directly related to the overall fire protection performance of the building. By reasonably selecting materials, standardizing construction processes and strict acceptance standards, it can be ensured that the skylight plays its due role in smoke exhaust and fire prevention in fires, providing reliable protection for personnel safety and property protection. Therefore, the design, construction and operation and maintenance units must attach great importance to every detail to ensure that the installation quality of the fire smoke exhaust skylight is foolproof.
