How Warehouse Fireproofing Saves Your Commercial Business from Damage, Injury, and Financial Loss

A fire can be a mas­sive blow to your busi­ness. Cur­rent esti­mates reveal that com­mer­cial fires cost busi­ness­es more than $2.4 bil­lion annu­al­ly. Fires can occur any­where (whether it’s an office space, pro­duc­tion facil­i­ty, ware­house, etc.), and they can be trig­gered by sev­er­al fac­tors. In ware­hous­es, approx­i­mate­ly 18% of fires are caused by elec­tri­cal prob­lems, usu­al­ly relat­ed to flip­pant daisy-chain­ing, over­loaded cir­cuits, and lack of rou­tine main­te­nance. Even if you remain vig­i­lant with your ware­house main­te­nance, fires can still occur. In the event of a fire, you must make sure your ware­house is well-pre­pared to mit­i­gate the neg­a­tive effects of flames on your build­ing, equip­ment, and occu­pants — this is where thor­ough fire­proof­ing (along with oth­er fire pro­tec­tion meth­ods) come into play.

Here’s how prop­er ware­house fire­proof­ing helps pro­tect your busi­ness from dam­age, injury, and finan­cial loss.

How Ware­house Fire­proof­ing Helps Pro­tect Your Business

Shields Sur­faces from Flames

Fire­proof coat­ings are applied direct­ly to var­i­ous sur­faces inside a build­ing, pro­vid­ing a lay­er of pro­tec­tion designed to com­bat flames. Intu­mes­cent fire­proof­ing is par­tic­u­lar­ly pow­er­ful in pro­tect­ing your assets from fire, as these coat­ings expand when exposed to extreme­ly high tem­per­a­tures. By puff­ing up into a char­coal-like foam sub­stance, an even more sig­nif­i­cant insu­la­tive bar­ri­er is formed that reduces the impact of high heat on under­ly­ing sur­faces (this is espe­cial­ly cru­cial for struc­tur­al com­po­nents). Cemen­ti­tious fire­proof­ing also pro­tects sur­faces from fire, though it does not trans­form like its intu­mes­cent coun­ter­part. In either case, the prop­er appli­ca­tion of these coat­ings helps pre­vent fire from incur­ring severe dam­age to your var­i­ous assets, reduc­ing the cost of poten­tial repairs and replace­ments after the fact.

Helps Build­ings Retain Struc­tur­al Integri­ty Despite Fire

As briefly men­tioned above, high-qual­i­ty fire­proof paint is essen­tial for pro­tect­ing a warehouse’s struc­tur­al integri­ty. While struc­tur­al steel is high­ly durable, pro­longed expo­sure to flames can weak­en its struc­ture, which can lead to a chain reac­tion that ulti­mate­ly results in col­lapse. At the very least, var­i­ous com­po­nents over­head can break apart and fall down, pos­ing a seri­ous threat to any­one who hap­pens to be below. In the event of a fire, it’s cru­cial to evac­u­ate all occu­pants as effi­cient­ly as pos­si­ble to avoid these haz­ards — fire­proof­ing great­ly reduces the odds of such injuries as you attempt to get your peo­ple to safety.

Buys Time for First Responders

The soon­er a fire is put out, the bet­ter. While even small fires can wreak hav­oc on cer­tain mate­ri­als, the most exten­sive dam­age occurs after time has passed and flames have had the oppor­tu­ni­ty to spread as far as pos­si­ble. One of the key advan­tages of out­fit­ting your ware­house with fire retar­dant paint is that doing so slows down how quick­ly and vio­lent­ly the fire can spread inside your build­ing. As a result, more time is afford­ed to fire­fight­ers to quench the flames. You still want these first respon­ders to arrive as soon as pos­si­ble, of course, but you also want them to encounter a more man­age­able fire as opposed to a sit­u­a­tion that’s got­ten out of con­trol. Fire­proof­ing affords this impor­tant advan­tage, pro­tect­ing your peo­ple and your property.

Pro­vide Your Ware­house with the Fire Pro­tec­tion it Deserves

A fire can occur at your ware­house when you least expect it. Make sure your peo­ple, build­ing, and assets are as pro­tect­ed as pos­si­ble from this per­va­sive lia­bil­i­ty. At Kaloutas, we’re more than your aver­age fire­proof­ing con­trac­tor. Not only do we pro­vide a wide range of fire­proof­ing ser­vices (includ­ing cemen­ti­tious, intu­mes­cent, fire­proof patch­ing, etc.) — we work the way you do, always mak­ing sure not to inter­fere with your oper­a­tions as we for­ti­fy your facil­i­ty. Whether you need a respon­sive, coop­er­a­tive, qual­i­fied con­trac­tor for fire­proof­ing, paint­ing, clean­ing, con­tain­ment, or seal­ing, con­tact us online or give us a call at 978−532−1414 today.