How Reliable Are Fire Retardant MDF And Plywood?

Are There Inherent Fire Retardant Wooden Panels?

Fire classifications are always an issue when designing wooden interior paneling for public spaces. You have to find a material that meets the high fire classifications and at the same time meets your expactations on design.

Materials like mdf, plywood and solid wood have a fire classification that is classified for the core material. But what happens when you add veneer, lacquer or perforation to these materials? The fire classification drops dramatically. A solutions to this is to add chemicals to protect the panel. Chemicals like FR-lacquers and impregnations makes the surface non-clear because of the salts and thicknesses, and can you assure that the chemicals are reaching all the way through the core material? Also, perforations cannot be lacquered.

At Gustafs we take fire safety seriously. Gustafs wooden panels are based on a non-combustible fiber gypsum core and are not reliant on chemicals and still achieves A2-s1,d0. The fire classification comes from the mechanical composition of the components which generates the final result. The fire classification is also valid for the whole panel, including lacquer, wooden veneer and perforations.

We have compiled a comparison between the most common core materials for wooden paneling. We compare the materials ability and fire retardancy on both core material level and as a whole panel.