Low VOC fire barrier spay foam
arnoldk
| Posted in General Questions on
Hi,
Does anyone know if a low VOC fire barrier spray foam can that can be purchased in the large hardware store?
This is the sealant wire and plumbing penetration between floors, attic and cold air return.
Thanks,
Arnold
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Replies
I often see people using a spray foam product for fire stopping purposes, because the can says that it is. However, the product does not carry the required CAN/ULC (or similar by jurisdiction) standards, and in fact burns quite well.
HILTI and 3M, and others, have reliable and certified lines of products for fire stopping that can also be used for air tightness purposes.
Sorry, not sure about VOC contents.
Hilti has a low VOC fire barrier but I cannot get my hands on it in my City and the 3M is not a low VOC. I suspect low VOC fire barrier are hard to come by due to the nature of the product function.
Arnold
The orange canned foam ("fireblock") is rated for sealing things like wire and plumbing penetrations in residential structures. There is also the 3M yellow firestop call, which is an intumescent sealant (which is fancy way to say it expands when it gets hot). The 3M red firestop sealant is required for commercial structures, and is a higher peformance material, and it can be used in residential structures too.
If your concern is smelly and offgassing, the caulk/sealants don't use propellants, since they aren't pressurized cans, so the sealants are probably better than great stuff. I've never looked to see if the fire stop sealants actually have any particular listing as to VOC content though.
Bill