How Intumescent Fireproofing Keeps Your Facility Functional and Your People Working

Every business needs to have a fire protection program in place — OSHA (the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration) won’t have it any other way. Of course, abiding by these fire prevention codes isn’t just about compliance; it’s about protecting everyone and everything inside your facility. In addition to outfitting your facility with items like extinguishers and smoke detectors, fireproofing is an important component of maintaining strong fire protection protocols. Fire resistive coatings are meant to slow the spread of flames within a facility and protect the surfaces from reaching extremely high temperatures. Intumescent coatings are among the most effective options in this regard, expanding when exposed to high temperatures to create a larger buffer between flames and the surfaces they protect.
Occupational safety is the most important goal of measures like intumescent fireproofing. That said, protecting your facility and your people in this way has knock-on effects that serve to benefit your business in other ways. More specifically, intumescent fireproofing can make your facility more efficient at every level, especially when installed and maintained by knowledgeable professionals. Here’s how intumescent fireproofing keeps your facility functional and your people working.
How Intumescent Fireproofing Keeps Your Facility Functional
Intumescent Fireproofing Protects Your Assets
As previously mentioned, intumescent coatings come alive when exposed to flames, swelling into a carbon-based, noncombustible char-layer (charcoal-like) substance to minimize the effects of high heat on structural components, equipment, and other assets. In doing so, even a strong fire has a harder time doing serious damage to your facility and its components, reducing the need for major repairs, slow-downs, and facility downtime. Most importantly, intumescent paint helps prevent structural collapse, helping steel maintain its integrity until the flames are snuffed out. Ultimately, these qualities save your business time and money in the event of a fire, keeping your operations flowing despite an emergency.
Intumescent Fireproofing Ensures Occupant Safety
Your people are your greatest assets, and they deserve to work in an environment in which they feel comfortable and safe. Applying high-quality intumescent coatings in your facility helps achieve these outcomes by bolstering workplace safety. Ideally, your location(s) will never face a fire. Still, knowing that your building is protected from the worst effects of a serious fire gives everyone peace of mind, which in turn increases morale and day-to-day productivity. Moreover, this boost in workplace safety translates to fewer workplace injuries and less liability overall. As such, your business will enjoy lower healthcare/insurance costs and fewer absences over the long term.
Intumescent Fireproofing Is Efficiently Applied in the Right Hands
Lastly, the intumescent fireproofing process itself can be done in a quick and minimally-obstructive manner when performed by a skilled and thoughtful fireproofing contractor like Kaloutas. Indeed, while fireproof coatings help keep your facility functional and efficient, you don’t want to put your operations on hold while the coatings are being applied. Fortunately, intumescent coatings can be applied as a spray on fireproofing material, greatly speeding up the process. Better yet, intumescent spray-on coatings can go over many existing intumescent coatings, if properly installed. Still, various preparations must be made prior to application, which is why the contractor in question should make clear well in advance that the facility needs to be watertight and maintain a certain internal climate for efficient, long-lasting results. Coordination is key across the board if you wish to keep your operations flowing during fireproofing preparation and application — at Kaloutas, we understand this well.
We take the time to get to know a client and their facility before making our move to help us provide the best, most efficient services that don’t take a toll on workplace operations or personnel. Our “No Work Stoppage Guarantee” outlines this point clearly, and we apply it to everything we do, including fireproofing, containment, cleaning, painting, caulking, and more. To learn more about us and all that we do, contact us online or give us a call at 978−532−1414 today!