Fire Rated Panels for Rooftop Construction by UltraBaseSystems
Read Video Transcript and Main Points Addressed Below
Okay, so we’re here in St. Petersburg, Florida, and very rarely do we get a cold day. But this is one of them, so jackets and a flamethrower. What we’re really here for is to talk about our ASTM E108 panel system, and rooftops are exploding across the globe, not only for synthetic grass people, but for Ultra Base Systems. Why? Because we can go onto of a roof with very little weight, and essentially create a really terrific area for synthetic turf, pavers, even athletic courts to go on a rooftop with great drainage and low weight.
Introducing Our New ASTM E108 Fire Rated Panels
So we knew we had to create something that was going to be unique to the industry. That’s what we really try to specialize in here is solving problems. So we spent the time, a lot of money, to create what’s ASTM E108 and what E108 is, it is a test standard. It’s almost like the gold standard for rooftops that our panel has passed an E108 standard for a non-combustible roof deck. Now, understand something. If a ASTM E108 system has to include the panel, we have a geo-fabric made by GAF that goes under and then turf.
But we had to test it a couple different ways. One, with just our panel to make sure our panel and the underlayment system would pass an E108 testing, which a variety of tests that the panel has to withstand, a certain temperature of flame for a duration of period, and it’s pretty complex what they do. It took a lot for us to formulate blends to achieve it. The other side is that we’ve tested it with some turf that have E108 rating, SYNLawn actually has an E108 turf that worked really well with this. So what it did, it created a complete E108 system much the way FIFA does. FIFA tells you, okay, if you’re going to do a turf system, it has to be the turf, the base, the infill. Everything has to be included to get that certification.
What FR Panels We Offer Now
That’s the same thing that’s happening with an E108, but we wanted to show you that we’ve got a panel, and we have all the reports that we can send to you that show clearly that the company that tested us approved us for Class A, E108 on a non-combustible roof deck. And so, just for the fun of it, what I’m going to do is kind of show you the different panels we’ve got. We’ve done this in Champion and Professional, and then the IC panel, which we also call the Ultra Base Extreme. We’re going to always be making these in white. The Ultra Base panel you’ll see is in black because we just didn’t have that blend, but we did it in white so we could differentiate very easily.
Fire Rated Panels Already In Action
We’re excited by the product. In fact, we did our first big project with it with Denver Airport. A SYNLawn dealer in Denver did this. Great opportunity for us to go up and produce a Class A system for a rooftop which the engineers, the fire marshals, contractors, were thrilled with that, that we were able to achieve this. So we’ve got great stability, drainage, the turf doesn’t move. All the great stuff that Ultra Base does, but it’s now available in a Class A. So I’m going to light up a torch here, and we’re going to kind of show you what this panel looks like and why we’ve done what we’ve done.
Alright, well as you can see, we’ve got propane torch here, very hot flame. I would recommend don’t try this on just normal, synthetic turf, and surely don’t try it on other products that are on rooftop, whether it be foam or some other type of drain mat because it ain’t going to work. But just to give you an idea of what we’ve got here. So this essentially, this torch, this panel, is meant to withstand the heat, the intensity, of a propane torch. So God forbid there was a fire, this system is designed to be able to allow enough time for an individual to escape and perform the way that the architects, the engineers want it to.
