Ensign cast iron above ground drainage system

The Strathclyde Fire and Rescue Training Centre at Cambuslang near Glasgow is used to simulate real fire situations, with designated training rooms able to be set on fire to allow fire-fighters to hone their skills.

This means that fittings such as drainage systems needed to be non-combustible and totally fire resistant to eliminate the risk of fire spreading to other parts of the building - either upwards through flames or downwards through molten droplets - and minimise transmission of toxic fumes.

As well as fire resistance, the system needed to offer optimum acoustic performance to minimise disruption to staff working in the building.

Ensign Soil cast iron pipes of around £25,000 in value were specified by Hulley and Kirkland and supplied by national stockist Frazer.

The main contractor for the project was Bovis Lend Lease with Balfour Beatty Engineering Services the appointed MandE contractor, who subcontracted the drainage to John Crawford MandE of Glasgow.

Jim Burns of Saint-Gobain PAM UK, explained: ’Only metal drainage systems could be considered for this application - research carried out by an independent laboratory in Germany showed that plastic drainage systems cannot be guaranteed to offer the required fire resistance properties even when fitted with fire collars.

By contrast, cast iron pipes offer excellent resistance against fire and in some cases have been in a serviceable condition afterwards.

In this application, nothing could be left to chance and we were able to provide a solution guaranteed to offer optimum resistance in the unlikely event that a fire planned for training purposes came into contact with the drainage system’.