How to Plan Fireproofing Projects for New Constructions the Right Way

Fire­proof­ing is not just a reg­u­la­to­ry require­ment; it is a cru­cial ele­ment of build­ing secu­ri­ty and safe­ty. Thus, fire­proof­ing plan­ning must be one of the top pri­or­i­ties when embark­ing on a new con­struc­tion project. Read on to dis­cov­er how to approach fire­proof­ing projects the right way and why experts like Kaloutas are inte­gral part­ners in build­ing a prop­er strategy. 

Under­stand­ing the Sig­nif­i­cance of Fireproofing 

Fire can ignite any­time under the right con­di­tions — it only needs fuel, heat, and oxy­gen. Once a fire starts, the flames can spread and engulf an unpro­tect­ed build­ing in min­utes. A small flame can turn into a major fire in as lit­tle as 30 sec­onds. This time­frame is just too short for build­ing occu­pants to escape to safe­ty and first respon­ders to arrive. 

Time is of the essence when there is a fire, and prop­er­ly imple­ment­ed fire­proof­ing can help to pro­vides just that. Although it does not make a struc­ture com­plete­ly resis­tant to fire dam­age, fire­proof­ing helps extend the time it takes for a struc­ture to col­lapse or fail when exposed to fire. This short delay can be the dif­fer­ence between life and death. 

Besides sav­ing lives, fire­proof­ing can also help min­i­mize prop­er­ty dam­age. Fire­proof­ing mate­ri­als can with­stand sig­nif­i­cant heat for 30 to 120 min­utes, depend­ing on their fire rat­ing, main­te­nance, and the fire inten­si­ty. That means build­ing com­po­nents will remain intact and struc­tural­ly sound for an extend­ed peri­od dur­ing a fire, so help can arrive and extin­guish the flames. 

Fire­proof­ing is crit­i­cal for build­ings and people’s safe­ty, so it must be installed and uti­lized prop­er­ly. Fed­er­al, state and munic­i­pal build­ing and fire codes are designed for life safe­ty, and it is the respon­si­bil­i­ty of a design team and prop­er­ty own­er to plan care­ful­ly to ensure this type of fire pre­ven­tion ful­fills its job when the time comes. To ensure prop­er plan­ning for fire­proof­ing, con­sid­er work­ing with trust­wor­thy fire­proof­ing con­trac­tors like Kaloutas. 

Tips for Plan­ning a Fire­proof­ing Project 

Plan­ning a fire­proof­ing project isn’t a walk in the park, but here are a few tips to make it eas­i­er (and remem­ber, Kaloutas is here to help you along the way and do the leg­work so you can focus on what you do best). 

1. Under­stand the Rel­e­vant Rules and Regulations 

If you’re new to fire­proof­ing, one of the crit­i­cal things to learn when plan­ning a fire­proof­ing project is fire safe­ty codes. These reg­u­la­tions are designed to pro­tect prop­er­ty and peo­ple by ensur­ing build­ings are equipped with fire detec­tion, pre­ven­tion, and sup­pres­sion sys­tems. Non-com­pli­ance with fed­er­al and state fire safe­ty require­ments can lead to hefty fines and oth­er legal penalties. 

Fire safe­ty reg­u­la­tions vary by juris­dic­tion. Like any­where else, New Eng­land has a set of strin­gent fire safe­ty codes, which pri­mar­i­ly fol­low the Nation­al Fire Pro­tec­tion Asso­ci­a­tion NFPA 1. State and City codes are often a sub­set of the world-rec­og­nized Inter­na­tion­al Fire Code and, depend­ing upon the build­ing usage, the Occu­pa­tion­al Safe­ty and Health Admin­is­tra­tion fire safe­ty-relat­ed reg­u­la­tions may also apply. 

Fire code details can get over­whelm­ing, so it is often best to part­ner with a fire­proof­ing con­trac­tor with an in-depth under­stand­ing of local reg­u­la­tions (that’s where Kaloutas comes in). That way, you can guar­an­tee your project is up to code. Anoth­er rea­son to work with an expert fire­proof­ing team like Kaloutas is to stay abreast of the changes in safe­ty reg­u­la­tions. Changes often occur due to new build­ing tech­niques or dra­mat­ic fire inci­dents. Fire­proof­ing con­trac­tors con­stant­ly mon­i­tor these changes to ensure your fire­proof­ing sys­tem com­plies with the lat­est standards. 

2. Pri­or­i­tize and Plan 

A fire­proof­ing plan for any build­ing should con­sist of four key ele­ments: a fire escape route, com­part­men­tal­iza­tion, smoke extrac­tion, and struc­tur­al protection. 

Fire Escape Route 

First, it is crit­i­cal to pri­or­i­tize the fire escape route, as it will deter­mine the suc­cess of evac­u­a­tion. The fire escape route should allow peo­ple to eas­i­ly trav­el from any loca­tion in a build­ing to a safe place with­out any out­side help. It should remain free from smoke and oth­er gas­es that will oth­er­wise inca­pac­i­tate evac­uees. That can be accom­plished using mate­ri­als with a high fire resis­tance rat­ing. When plan­ning fire­proof­ing escape routes, it’s cru­cial to ensure that the amount of time the fire­proof­ing mate­ri­als can resist fire exceeds the time need­ed for evacuation. 

Fire Com­part­men­ta­tion

Fire com­part­men­ta­tion is anoth­er vital com­po­nent of fire­proof­ing. As men­tioned above, fire only takes sev­er­al sec­onds to prop­a­gate and spread. How­ev­er, you can slow down the speed of the spread through­out a build­ing by divid­ing the struc­ture into fire com­part­ments. Each com­part­ment should be sur­round­ed by bound­aries, i.e., fire-resis­tant walls, floors, and ceil­ings. The walls, floors, and oth­er struc­tures should be able to stop the flames from pen­e­trat­ing, con­trol the tem­per­a­ture, and car­ry loads with­out col­laps­ing. Ser­vice pen­e­tra­tions (plumb­ing, HVAC, elec­tri­cal) and seams (joints where walls meet ceil­ings or oth­er walls) are where fire stop­ping is required. 

Duct­work

Fire­proof­ing ven­ti­la­tion ducts is also cru­cial, as the vents usu­al­ly run through­out a build­ing and can allow fire to spread from one com­part­ment to anoth­er. In addi­tion, ducts can allow smoke to spread, which can inca­pac­i­tate occu­pants. In this case, smoke extrac­tion duct­work becomes valu­able. As the name sug­gests, smoke extrac­tion duct­work can remove smoke from build­ings, enabling emer­gency evac­u­a­tions. These work in con­cert with smoke bar­ri­ers and par­ti­tion require­ments in much the same way firestop­ping does to con­tain flames. 

Load-Bear­ing Structures 

Load-bear­ing struc­tures are struc­tur­al ele­ments of a build­ing that hold the weight of the ele­ments above them, such as the roof or floor. These struc­tur­al ele­ments can lose their load-bear­ing capac­i­ty because of fire, and when they do, the whole build­ing can col­lapse. Although fire­proof­ing load-bear­ing struc­tures will not make the struc­ture 100% fire resis­tant, it can buy peo­ple more time to evac­u­ate and fire­fight­ers to com­bat the fire. As a result, it can lim­it dam­age to the build­ing and its assets. 

3. Deter­mine Fire­proof­ing Methods 

Many dif­fer­ent fire­proof­ing meth­ods are avail­able, includ­ing SFRMs (sprayed fire-resis­tant mate­ri­als), IFRMs (intu­mes­cent fire-resis­tant mate­ri­als), ther­mal acousti­cal insu­la­tion, and fire-resis­tant boards and pan­els. Not all these options have uni­ver­sal appli­ca­tions, so it’s cru­cial to deter­mine which method suits your project best. Kaloutas is famil­iar with each of these fire­proof­ing meth­ods and will advise you on which mate­ri­als make the most sense for your structures. 

SFRMs, or spray-applied fire-resis­tant mate­ri­als, are com­posed pre­dom­i­nant­ly of min­er­al fiber or cement mixed with oth­er mate­ri­als. Upon appli­ca­tion, these mate­ri­als will coat or encap­su­late a steel struc­ture, cre­at­ing a bar­ri­er that pre­vents fire from dam­ag­ing it. 

On the oth­er hand, IFRMs (intu­mes­cent fire-resis­tant mate­ri­als) are more advanced pas­sive fire pro­tec­tion sys­tems. They are also known as intu­mes­cent coat­ings or paints. Thin and light­weight, these coat­ings appear just like nor­mal paint but expand up to 100% of their orig­i­nal thick­ness when exposed to high heat. The coat­ing slows down the spread of fire and heat pen­e­tra­tion. Besides being fire resis­tant, intu­mes­cent paints come in var­i­ous col­ors and sheens to meet your aes­thet­ic requirements. 

Anoth­er option is ther­mal-acousti­cal insu­la­tion, but this one is for mixed-use build­ings. It’s a fire­proof­ing-com­pat­i­ble insu­la­tion prod­uct that reduces not only heat trans­fer but also sound trans­mis­sion and while offer­ing the same tem­per­a­ture insu­la­tion of tra­di­tion­al insu­la­tion products. 

4. Con­duct a Risk Assessment 

Con­duct­ing a com­pre­hen­sive fire risk assess­ment is also crit­i­cal to for­mu­lat­ing an effec­tive fire­proof­ing plan. This eval­u­a­tion involves iden­ti­fy­ing pos­si­ble fire sources and scru­ti­niz­ing pos­si­ble avenues of spread. When you under­stand the dis­tinct fire risks in var­i­ous infra­struc­ture seg­ments, you can devise an effec­tive fire­proof­ing plan. Kaloutas will work close­ly with you to iden­ti­fy poten­tial fire risks so we can devel­op the safest and most effec­tive fire­proof­ing plan for your needs. 

Part­ner With the Pros 

Once you dive into the details, plan­ning a fire­proof­ing project can be chal­leng­ing. At Kaloutas, we under­stand that man­age­ment teams have busy sched­ules. So, let us do the hard work so you can focus on oth­er impor­tant tasks. 

Kaloutas is your reli­able fire­proof­ing expert in New Eng­land. We under­stand the fed­er­al and state fire safe­ty codes your build­ing must adhere to and will help you stay com­pli­ant. We offer intu­mes­cent fire­proof­ing, spray-on fire­proof­ing, ther­mal-acousti­cal insu­la­tion, and more! When you choose our team, you can guar­an­tee a fire­proof­ing that works and saves lives and assets. 

Are you ready to pro­tect your new con­struc­tion from fire? Let’s talk! Call 978.532.1414 today or fill out our form to get a project estimate.