How Fireproofing Even the Most Durable Fixtures Saves the Integrity of Your Facility

Your facil­i­ty is built to with­stand var­i­ous threats and pres­sures, from foun­da­tion­al shifts to severe weath­er events and more. That said, when a fire grows hot and large enough, it can quick­ly dete­ri­o­rate your var­i­ous assets and struc­tur­al com­po­nents, espe­cial­ly if these fea­tures aren’t prop­er­ly pro­tect­ed with fire­proof­ing of some kind. Before long, you may be fac­ing a par­tial or total col­lapse. Here’s how fire­proof­ing even the most durable fix­tures can save the integri­ty of your facil­i­ty in case of a fire.

Ben­e­fits of Fireproofing

Struc­tur­al Steel Is Weak­ened by Intense Flames

Steel is one of the most com­mon­ly used con­struc­tion mate­ri­als for com­mer­cial build­ings for its dura­bil­i­ty and rel­a­tive­ly low cost. Indeed, it takes a lot to under­mine the resilience of steel — unfor­tu­nate­ly, a big enough fire can do the trick. While most fires don’t get hot enough to melt struc­tur­al steel (this occurs at about 2,500 degrees Fahren­heit), steel beams begin to lose their stiff­ness at just 300°F and lose their strength start­ing at 800°F. The more these tem­per­a­tures rise beyond these points, the loos­er and weak­er struc­tur­al steel becomes. It’s no won­der that fire­proof­ing struc­tur­al steel is nec­es­sary to com­ply with cer­tain build­ing codes.

Wood, Dry­wall, and Con­crete Are Even More Sus­cep­ti­ble to Fire Damage

Of course, steel isn’t the only mate­r­i­al used for struc­tur­al and assem­bly pur­pos­es. Most com­mer­cial build­ings also fea­ture wood, dry­wall, con­crete, and oth­er mate­ri­als that are even more vul­ner­a­ble to flames. Ulti­mate­ly, each of these com­po­nents is inter­twined — if the wood­en por­tion of an assem­bly is weak­ened by flames, for instance, it will affect the assem­bly as a whole. Installing fire­proof paint, includ­ing intu­mes­cent paint, and/​or oth­er fire­proof­ing mate­ri­als over these var­i­ous sur­faces is key to main­tain­ing your facility’s over­all struc­tur­al integri­ty. Sim­ply put, these com­mer­cial fire­proof­ing solu­tions are designed to pre­vent flames from direct­ly con­tact­ing the under­ly­ing sur­faces (or at least pro­long this process) to reduce the lev­el and speed of struc­tur­al dete­ri­o­ra­tion. This gives occu­pants more time to safe­ly escape the build­ing and for fire­fight­ers to arrive and put out the flames before any severe struc­tur­al dam­age occurs.

A Strong Enough Fire Can Have Long-Term Impli­ca­tions on Your Facility’s Integrity

Time is of the essence when it comes to elim­i­nat­ing a fire in your facil­i­ty, both for the safe­ty of every­one inside and for the con­tin­ued sound­ness of your struc­tures. If a fire is allowed to get too hot and/​or remain active for too long, it can have seri­ous long-term effects on your struc­tur­al com­po­nents. For instance, fires that burn over 1,300°F for approx­i­mate­ly 20 min­utes or longer can result in per­ma­nent dimin­ish­ment in strength and stiff­ness of struc­tur­al steel com­po­nents. If the fire is put out before it reach­es these heights, there’s a good chance your struc­tur­al steel will recov­er its pre­vi­ous strength and stiff­ness (though some defor­mi­ty may have tak­en place). By installing and main­tain­ing prop­er intu­mes­cent fire pro­tec­tive coat­ings, the chances of these per­ma­nent prob­lems are great­ly reduced, as these high tem­per­a­tures don’t have as much of a chance to affect your struc­tur­al features.

Keep Your Facil­i­ty Stand­ing Tall with Fireproofing

Even the most durable parts of your facil­i­ty need addi­tion­al pro­tec­tion from flames. Com­mer­cial and indus­tri­al fire­proof­ing solu­tions help keep your struc­tur­al steel and oth­er struc­tur­al com­po­nents from los­ing their strength, shape, and stiff­ness while allow­ing addi­tion­al time for peo­ple to safe­ly exit the premis­es and fire­fight­ers to stop the fire once and for all. These solu­tions also min­i­mize the risk of your struc­tur­al parts under­go­ing per­ma­nent dam­age fol­low­ing a fire.

If you’re look­ing for a part­ner to inspect, main­tain, and/​or install new fire­proof coat­ings, look no fur­ther than Kaloutas. Our large team of experts and com­mit­ment to work­ing the way you work allow us to effi­cient­ly pro­vide your facil­i­ty with the fire­proof­ing it needs with­out inter­fer­ing with your oper­a­tions. To learn more about us and all that we do, con­tact us online or give us a call at 978−532−1414 today.