Opening a New Warehouse? Protect it with Fireproofing

If you run a busi­ness, you under­stand the impor­tance of pro­tect­ing your peo­ple and your assets. So, open­ing a new ware­house is no small deci­sion. Before it’s ready for oper­a­tion, you must take the prop­er steps to ensure the safe­ty of every­one and every­thing inside, includ­ing fire­proof­ing. Of course, full-fire­proof­ing con­sists of mul­ti­ple aspects that all work togeth­er to cre­ate a well-pro­tect­ed work envi­ron­ment. There must be a col­lab­o­ra­tion between indus­tri­al painters, man­agers, work­ers, and local fire departments.

With all this in mind, let’s go over how you can prop­er­ly fire­proof your new warehouse.

Why Your Ware­house Needs Fireproofing

Com­po­nents of a Thor­ough Fire­proof­ing System

No build­ing is ever com­plete­ly immune to fire. How­ev­er, the steps out­lined below help decrease the risk of a fire start­ing, inform staff mem­bers of prop­er safe­ty mea­sures in the case of an emer­gency, and slow down the spread of fire. These com­po­nents include:

• Prop­er Safe­ty Train­ing: all per­son­nel must be thor­ough­ly trained to han­dle flam­ma­ble and cor­ro­sive mate­ri­als with care. Train­ing ses­sions should occur reg­u­lar­ly and also go over prop­er fire extin­guish­er use, evac­u­a­tion pro­ce­dures, and more.

• Stor­age Safe­ty and Opti­miza­tion: ware­hous­es should be laid out in such a way that they facil­i­tate smart stor­age and stack­ing. When stacked, pal­lets should not exceed a cer­tain height. Waste must be prop­er­ly com­pact­ed and removed to avoid over­flow­ing. And stored prod­ucts must nev­er obstruct exits or entry­ways. All of these mea­sures reduce the risk of fire and ensure safe evacuation.

• Ware­house Safe­ty Strip­ing: path­ways and loca­tions of key items such as fire extin­guish­ers should be clear­ly marked via ware­house line strip­ing. These paint­ed stripes should be main­tained and touched up on an annu­al basis or as need­ed so per­son­nel can clear­ly see them and respond accordingly.

• Fireproof/​Intumescent Coat­ings: struc­tur­al com­po­nents, elec­tri­cal equip­ment, pipes, ceil­ings, etc., should be cov­ered with fire­proof coat­ings. These intu­mes­cent coat­ings look like reg­u­lar paint but expand and change their state when exposed to extreme­ly high tem­per­a­tures. As a result, fire­proof coat­ings slow down the spread of flames, pro­tect­ing your warehouse’s infra­struc­ture and buy­ing time for per­son­nel to safe­ly evac­u­ate and fire­fight­ers to put out the fire.

• Fire Depart­ment Col­lab­o­ra­tion: when open­ing a new ware­house or anoth­er type of facil­i­ty, a busi­ness should reach out to the near­est fire depart­ment to famil­iar­ize them with your space. They can map out your warehouse’s lay­out and point out poten­tial haz­ards so that in the event of a fire they’re ful­ly pre­pared to respond as needed.

Need Help Fire­proof­ing Your New Warehouse?

It’s one thing to know the var­i­ous ways to pro­tect your ware­house from fire; it’s anoth­er thing to imple­ment these strate­gies and sys­tems. This is where Kaloutas​’s fire­proof­ing ser­vices come to the res­cue. We are a safe­ty-first kind of com­pa­ny, mean­ing we go above and beyond the indus­try stan­dard for best prac­tices. Our team can install intu­mes­cent coat­ings/​intumescent paint where need­ed, and give you fur­ther advice on how to fire­proof your warehouse.

To learn more about us and all that we do, con­tact us online or give us a call at 978−532−1414.

Kaloutas is New Eng­land’s pre­mier con­trac­tor for com­mer­cial & indus­tri­al paint­ing, floor­ing, and relat­ed ser­vices. Estab­lished in 1987, Kaloutas has become a trust­ed resource for gen­er­al con­trac­tors, facil­i­ties man­agers, and build­ing own­ers from Con­necti­cut to Maine. Our team prides itself on high qual­i­ty work­man­ship, jobs done on time & bud­get, and tack­ling com­plex projects that oth­er con­trac­tors don’t have the expe­ri­ence or resources to han­dle. Con­tact us today for a paint­ing or floor­ing esti­mate, or give us a call at 978−532−1414 to learn more.