
COMMISSION DECISION of 6 March 2006 establishing the classes of reaction-to-fire performance for certain construction products as regards wood flooring and solid wood panelling and cladding (notified under document number C(2006) 655) (Text with EEA relevance) (2006/213/EC) 

THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community,
Having regard to Directive 89/106/EEC of 21 December 1988, on the approximation of laws, regulations and administrative provisions of the Member States relating to construction products, and in particular Article 20(2) thereof,
Whereas:

(1) Directive 89/106/EEC envisages that in order to take account of different levels of protection for construction works at national, regional or local level, it may be necessary to establish in the interpretative documents classes corresponding to the performance of products in respect of each essential requirement. Those documents have been published as the ‘Communication of the Commission with regard to the interpretative documents of Directive 89/106/EEC’.

(2) With respect to the essential requirement of safety in the event of fire, interpretative document No 2 lists a number of interrelated measures which together define the fire safety strategy to be variously developed in the Member States.

(3) Interpretative document No 2 identifies one of those measures as the limitation of the generation and spread of fire and smoke within a given area by limiting the potential of construction products to contribute to the full development of a fire.

(4) The level of that limitation may be expressed only in terms of the different levels of reaction-to-fire performance of the products in their end-use application;

(5) By way of harmonised solution, a system of classes was adopted in Commission Decision 2000/147/EC of 8 February 2000 implementing Council Directive 89/106/EEC as regards the classification of the reaction-to-fire performance of construction products.

(6) In the case of wood flooring and solid wood panelling and cladding it is necessary to use the classification established in Decision 2000/147/EC.

(7) The reaction-to-fire performance of many construction products and/or materials, within the classification provided for in Decision 2000/147/EC, is well established and sufficiently well known to fire regulators in Member States that they do not require testing for this particular performance characteristic.

(8) The measures provided for in this Decision are in accordance with the opinion of the Standing Committee on Construction,
HAS ADOPTED THIS DECISION:

Article 1 
The construction products and/or materials which satisfy all the requirements of the performance characteristic ‘reaction to fire’ without need for further testing are set out in the Annex.
Article 2 
The specific classes to be applied to different construction products and/or materials, within the reaction-to-fire classification adopted in Decision 2000/147/EC, are set out in the Annex to this Decision.
Article 3 
Products shall be considered in relation to their end-use application, where relevant.
Article 4 
This Decision is addressed to the Member States.
Done at Brussels, 6 March 2006.
For the Commission
Günter VERHEUGEN
Vice-President
ANNEX
The tables set out in this Annex, list construction products and/or materials which satisfy all of the requirements for the performance characteristic reaction to fire without need for testing.


Table 1CLASSES OF REACTION TO FIRE PERFORMANCE FOR WOOD FLOORINGMaterial, Product detail Minimum mean density(kg/m3) Minimum overall thickness(mm) End-use condition Class for floorings
Wood flooring and parquet Solid flooring of oak or beech with surface coating Beech: 680Oak: 650 8 Glued to substrate Cfl - s1
Solid flooring of oak, beech or spruce and with surface coating Beech: 680Oak: 650Spruce: 450 20 With or without air gap underneath
Solid wood flooring with surface coating and not specified above 390 8 Without air gap underneath Dfl - s1
20 With or without air gap underneath
Wood parquet Multilayer parquet with a top layer of oak of at least 5 mm thickness and with surface coating 650(top layer) 10 Glued to substrate Cfl - s1
14 With or without air gap underneath
Multilayer parquet with surface coating and not specified above 500 8 Glued to substrate Dfl - s1
10 Without air gap underneath
14 With or without air gap underneath
Veneered floor covering Veneered floor covering with surface coating 800 6 Without air gap underneath Dfl - s1








Table 2CLASSES OF REACTION TO FIRE PERFORMANCE FOR SOLID WOOD PANELLING AND CLADDINGMaterial Product detail Minimum mean density(kg/m3) Minimum thicknesses, total/minimum(mm) End-use condition Class
Panelling and cladding Wood pieces with or without tongue and groove and with or without profiled surface 390 9/6 Without air gap or with closed air gap behind D - s2, d2
12/8 D - s2, d0
Panelling and cladding Wood pieces with or without tongue and groove and with or without profiled surface 390 9/6 With open air gap ≤ 20 mm behind D - s2, d0
18/12 Without air gap or with open air gap behind
Wood ribbon elements Wood pieces mounted on a support frame 390 18 Surrounded by open air on all sides D - s2, d0











Figure a
Profiles for solid wood panelling and cladding
Figure b
Maximum exposed area of wood ribbon element 2n (t + w) + a ≤ 1,10