Steps to Take to Implement New Fire Stopping During Downtime

Even the busiest facil­i­ties need a break. Whether you’re gear­ing up for a vaca­tion or some manda­to­ry down­time, if you’re plan­ning on tem­porar­i­ly shut­ting down your facil­i­ty, don’t let this time go to waste. An emp­ty, pow­ered-down facil­i­ty is prime for inspec­tion, repair, and ren­o­va­tion. Fire pro­tec­tion and pre­ven­tion should always be at the top of your list of pri­or­i­ties. Let’s go over some steps you should take to imple­ment new fire stop­ping mate­ri­als and meth­ods in your facil­i­ty dur­ing a shutdown.

What Is Fire Stop­ping Mate­r­i­al?

We’ll start by defin­ing fire stop­ping (or ​“firestop­ping”). This form of pas­sive fire pro­tec­tion (PFP) refers to sub­stances, con­struc­tion, and sys­tems that, accord­ing to the Inter­na­tion­al Firestop Coun­cil (IFC), “…resist or stop the spread of flame and its by-prod­ucts through open­ings in rat­ed walls, floors, or floor/​ceiling assem­blies.” Sim­ply put, the pur­pose of fire stop­ping is to block any and all pas­sage for flames to spread from one room to anoth­er with­in a build­ing. Fire stop­ping mate­r­i­al comes in many forms, includ­ing intu­mes­cents, cemen­ti­tious mor­tars, sil­i­cone, firestop pil­lows, min­er­al fibers, and rub­ber compounds.

Imple­ment­ing New Fire Stop­ping in Your Facility

Know Your Facility’s Fire Codes

Fire safe­ty is a no-brain­er, but imple­ment­ing the prop­er prac­tices requires ongo­ing effort and under­stand­ing. Indus­tri­al busi­ness own­ers and facil­i­ty man­agers have enough on their plate as it is – becom­ing a fire safe­ty expert is typ­i­cal­ly too much. This is why reg­u­la­to­ry agen­cies like OSHA Occu­pa­tion­al Safe­ty and Health Admin­is­tra­tion, IFC (Inter­na­tion­al Fire Code), and NFPA (The Nation­al Fire Pro­tec­tion Asso­ci­a­tion) are so impor­tant – these orga­ni­za­tions cre­ate fire safe­ty stan­dards for spe­cif­ic indus­tries to fol­low, allow­ing agents to effi­cient­ly inspect build­ings for poten­tial threats and issues when it comes to firestop­ping, fire­proof­ing, etc.

Still, it’s good to get a grip on your building’s unique needs and codes before imple­ment­ing new fire stop­ping mate­ri­als. Even hav­ing a rough idea of your facility’s fire codes will help you bud­get your projects, pre­pare your space, and find the right con­trac­tor. Read our blog, ​“Top 5 Ways to Imple­ment Prop­er Fire Codes Through­out Your Com­mer­cial Facil­i­ty” to learn more.

Make a Fire Safe­ty List

Know­ing a thing or two about rel­e­vant fire codes will help you devise a fire safe­ty check­list before the break. You can’t be too detailed with this list, nor can you check it enough. For­get­ting to prop­er­ly shut down heat­ing or elec­tri­cal com­po­nents (no mat­ter how small) before exit­ing your facil­i­ty can result in sig­nif­i­cant dam­age (not to men­tion undue ener­gy use). This is also the time to take stock of your facility’s cur­rent fire­proof­ing and firestop­ping mate­ri­als and meth­ods. If you or your inspec­tors find an issue (e.g., dam­aged or miss­ing fire­proof­ing, loose firestop­ping, etc.), you’ll want to have it tak­en care of by the time you return from the break.

Solid­i­fy Your Schedule

Depend­ing on the nature of your oper­a­tion, your facil­i­ty might only have a cou­ple of days off, or you might shut down for an entire month. What­ev­er the case, deter­mine the details of your shut­down plans months in advance. Not only is this a cour­tesy to your employ­ees and patrons – it’s also cru­cial for sched­ul­ing fire pre­ven­tion and pro­tec­tion ser­vices. The dura­tion of firestop­ping projects can range from a few hours to sev­er­al weeks, so you’ll want to get the most out of the time offered by your sched­uled downtime.

Sched­ule Firestop Ser­vices Now

A sched­uled shut­down presents the per­fect oppor­tu­ni­ty for firestop­ping install­ments and improve­ments. Going over your facility’s codes, needs, and sched­ule will ensure that you receive the right ser­vices with­out any dis­rup­tion to your nor­mal oper­a­tions. Kaloutas has the most updat­ed equip­ment and knowl­edge of what your com­mer­cial facil­i­ty needs for its firestop­ping. With fire engi­neers on staff, a no work stop­page guar­an­tee, and mul­ti­ser­vice reper­toire, you only have to imple­ment one con­trac­tor onboard­ing, one walk­through, and one con­tract when work­ing with us.

To learn more about us and all that we do for your facil­i­ty in MA, RI, or NH, con­tact us online or give us a call at 978−532−1414 today.