MCRMA publishes guidance on combustible ban compliance

The Metal Cladding & Roofing Manufacturers Association (MCRMA) has published an Advice Note titled AN 05 A2 Material Specification: Combustible Ban Compliance Note 1. It is reproduced below.

This advice note from the Metal Cladding and Roofing Manufacturers Association (MCRMA) provides specifiers with information relevant to the specification of A2 powder coated material.

To avoid challenges to this specification and potentially expensive consequences, caution is required when supplying or specifying A2 materials (for example, powder coated aluminium sheet) for buildings with a storey height over 18 metres.

The ‘combustible ban’ Building (Amendment) Regulations 2018 (parts 6 and 7(1)) introduced in England on December 21 2018 require that for relevant buildings, all materials contained in (or become part of in the case of remediation) an external wall are at least A2-s1, d0 (subject to certain exceptions). There are some very important considerations to bear in mind with this classification that are easily overlooked:

1. Although the legislation requires materials to be classified in accordance with EN 13501-1, MHCLG has accepted that certain materials can be declared A1 under EC Decision 96/603/EC.
2. A2 classifications are only possible via EN 13501-1 and therefore will always require testing. It is not possible to declare a product A2 under 96/603/EC. (Only inorganic coated metals such as anodised aluminium can be declared A1.)
3. Check the field of application of an A2 classification to ensure that it is relevant to the intended application.
4. ‘A2’ in itself is NOT enough – it must also be ‘s1, d0’. Not all A2 products meet the ‘s1’ requirement.

An A2 classification of the coating polymer cannot be assumed to be acceptable without examination of the classification report. The nature of a metal substrate (thickness, thermal conductivity etc) and its method of attachment can significantly affect the reaction to fire of a coated material. Please ensure that the backing system and method of attachment as tested under EN 13238 (required by EN 13501-1) represents the intended application.

The MCRMA represents the leading manufacturers of aluminium sheet, coil and composite material used for rainscreen applications and also the leading manufacturers and suppliers of rainscreen systems and components used in national and international applications.

Further information is available at www.mcrma.co.uk