Containment & Control of Thermal Movement

Plastic pipes expand and contract with changes in temperature so it’s essential that expansion joints are provided for the relief of such thermal movement.

Any point where a pipe is made good, or fire stopped when passing through a floor or wall, must be treated as a fixed point when arranging the position of expansion joints, but should not be relied on to anchor the pipe unless the socket of a fitting is firmly concreted in.

An expansion joint must be fitted between any two fixed points, one metre or more apart, and anchored in such a way that the force placed upon it from the thermal movement is held by the anchor point.

For further information on how to control thermal expansion and thermal contraction, please see the relevant technical manual below.