Fire Resistance of Wood Joist Floor Assemblies

This paper discusses the factors that affect the fire resistance performance of lightweight wood frame unrestrained floor assemblies protected with Type X gypsum board ceiling finishes. Twenty-two fire resistance experiments were conducted on full-scale load-bearing wood joist floor assemblies using the ULC standard fire exposure time–temperature curve that is similar to ASTM E119 standard. Parameters investigated in this study include the effects of gypsum board screws spacing from board edges, insulation installation, insulation type, joist spacing for assemblies with gypsum board attached to resilient channels, joist depth, resilient channel installation, resilient channel spacing, sub-floor topping, number of sub-floor layers, and load magnitude. The impact of these parameters on the fire resistance of wood joist frame floor assemblies is discussed. The fire resistance of wood frame floors appears essentially to be governed by the gypsum board screw spacing from the board edges and the type of insulation in assemblies with one layer of gypsum board and by the resilient channel spacing and the gypsum board screw spacing from the board edges in assemblies with two layers of gypsum board. The effects of other parameters in assemblies with two layers of gypsum board such as the joist spacing where the gypsum boards are attached to resilient channels, installation of resilient channels, insulation installation, insulation type, adding gyp-crete topping above the sub-floor and number of sub-floor layers on fire resistance are relatively insignificant.