The Ultimate Fire Resistant Building System

Fire Resistant Wood Building System - Holz100

​"Safety is a cheap and effective insurance policy." - Author Unknown

The European standard in high-tech woodblock and frame buildings (with normal, average wall, ceiling and roof thicknesses) is maximal F30. This means that the building element resists a flame at 1,000 degrees Celsius for 30 minutes. Holz100 elements reached top ratings of up to F180! This means six times safer than the usual reinforced concrete or brick walls offer. The ceiling ratings are even better.

Why? Wood burns well when it is thin and in contact with plenty of air. However, a thick block of wood hardly burns at all. It chars fairly slowly, approximately 0.5-0.7mm per minute. In a Holz100 house, every ceiling, wall and floor is a thick, fire-resistant block of wood that serves as firewalls.

Thoma Holz100 (40cm wall):
REI 120 minutes or F90 fire resistance

Thoma Holz100 (17cm wall):
REI 60 minutes or F60 fire resistance

While flame testing reinforced concrete walls, the cold side of the wall (which was not directly exposed to the flame) was showing in some areas a +400 degrees Celsius temperature rise after only 30 minutes. This happens because the reinforcement iron inside the concrete turns glowing hot and conducts the heat rapidly throughout the whole wall element.

While flame-testing a Holz100 wall element, the hottest spot on the cold side after 90 minutes was maximal only +1.8 degrees Celsius higher than the temperature taken in the start of the test. Wood is a warmth shield and even after hours of external flame testing and heat, its innermost is quite unchanged. This is incredibly important for safety reasons, particularly in large buildings. Many fires expand faster via heat than flames. Even if this sounds incredible, it has been proven that engineered wood is safer than concrete.

"Most fire deaths are not caused by burns, but by smoke inhalation. Often smoke incapacitates so quickly that people are overcome and can’t make it to an otherwise accessible exit. The synthetic materials commonplace in today’s homes produce especially dangerous substances." - National Fire Protection Association

Since Holz100 is 100% pure wood, its inhabitants need not worry about toxic fumes. With its singular natural component combined with structural capacities akin to a firewall, it is the ultimate fire-resistant building system.