Fire Safety

Prefabricated wood I-joists are used in light wood-frame floor and roof assemblies for many residential and commercial buildings. Most of the leading manufacturers have conducted fire tests and evaluations for common floor and roof assemblies to determine the fire performance of their wood I-joist products.

These evaluations are usually done by accredited certifying agencies and are applicable only to the specific proprietary prefabricated wood I-joist product and other assembly components being evaluated.

Information regarding the fire performance of assemblies incorporating specific prefabricated wood I-joists is available from the manufacturers. Such information is also available in listings books of the accredited certifying agencies such as Underwriters' Laboratories of Canada (ULC) or Warnock Hersey Professional Services Ltd. in Canada or Underwriters' Laboratories Inc. (ULI) in the US.

The Fire Safety Design in Buildings book provides details on the types of buildings which can be constructed using prefabricated wood I-joists in light frame construction while meeting fire safety requirements.

General guidelines for prefabricated wood I-Joists: 

• Manufacturers' catalogues and evaluation reports are the primary sources of information for design, typical installation details, and performance characteristics.
• Typical considerations needed for product specification include: product availability, product sizes available (i.e. depths and lengths) availability of approved connectors, certified fire and sound assembly information, engineering and technical support provided by the manufacturer, product quality, product warranty, product acceptance and code approvals, and installed cost effectiveness.
• It is particularly important that prefabricated wood I-joists should be protected from the weather during job site storage and installation. Wrapping of the product for shipment to the job site is important providing moisture protection.