Top 3 Ways to Implement a Commercial Fireproofing Maintenance Plan

Fires can have dev­as­tat­ing effects on lives and assets. In a per­fect world, fires would be entire­ly pre­vent­ed. Unfor­tu­nate­ly, many fac­tors can lead to com­mer­cial fires, even if you main­tain strong safe­ty pro­to­cols – this is why imple­ment­ing and main­tain­ing a prop­er fire pro­tec­tion plan is so important.

What Is a Fire Pro­tec­tion Plan?

A fire pro­tec­tion plan is a way of con­fig­ur­ing both active and pas­sive mea­sures to min­i­mize the neg­a­tive effects of a fire should one take place. Active fire pro­tec­tion (AFP) refers to sys­tems that require some type of action (man­u­al or auto­mat­ed) to respond to flames, such as alarms, sprin­klers, and extin­guish­ers. Pas­sive fire pro­tec­tion (PFP), on the oth­er hand, com­part­men­tal­izes a build­ing with fire stop­ping and fire­proof mate­ri­als. Togeth­er, these active and pas­sive mea­sures help con­trol fires and pro­tect occu­pants to max­i­mum effect. Prop­er plan­ning ensures that the build­ing is out­fit­ted with the nec­es­sary AFP and PFP measures.

How Do you Make a Fire Pro­tec­tion Plan?

The key to cre­at­ing an effec­tive fire pro­tec­tion plan is under­stand­ing your building’s needs, your industry’s fire codes, and which fire­proof­ing prod­ucts and sys­tems are best suit­ed for your facil­i­ty. This plan should be in con­cert with a fire pre­ven­tion plan. The Occu­pa­tion­al Safe­ty and Health Admin­is­tra­tion (OSHA) states that, ​“A fire pre­ven­tion plan must be in writ­ing, be kept in the work­place, and be made avail­able to employ­ees for review.” OSHA also notes that a fire pre­ven­tion plan must, at min­i­mum, include:

• “A list of all major fire haz­ards, prop­er han­dling and stor­age pro­ce­dures for haz­ardous mate­ri­als, poten­tial igni­tion sources and their con­trol, and the type of fire pro­tec­tion equip­ment nec­es­sary to con­trol each major hazard.

• Pro­ce­dures to con­trol accu­mu­la­tions of flam­ma­ble and com­bustible waste materials.

• Pro­ce­dures for reg­u­lar main­te­nance of safe­guards installed on heat-pro­duc­ing equip­ment to pre­vent the acci­den­tal igni­tion of com­bustible materials.

• The name or job title of employ­ees respon­si­ble for main­tain­ing equip­ment to pre­vent or con­trol sources of igni­tion or fires.

• The name or job title of employ­ees respon­si­ble for the con­trol of fuel source hazards.”

Main­tain­ing Your Com­mer­cial Fire­proof­ing

Though fire pro­tec­tion and pre­ven­tion plans are slight­ly dif­fer­ent, they’re both aimed at pro­tect­ing your peo­ple and prop­er­ty from the dev­as­ta­tion of flames. Fire­proof­ing is an inte­gral part of this ongo­ing fire pro­tec­tion plan, so it must be main­tained. Let’s list the top 3 ways to imple­ment a com­mer­cial fire­proof­ing main­te­nance plan.

Top Three Ways to Imple­ment a Com­mer­cial Fire­proof­ing Main­te­nance Plan

1. Install the Right Mate­ri­als in the Right Places

Not all fire­proof­ing is cre­at­ed equal. The com­po­nents and mate­ri­als used in cre­at­ing a final prod­uct will impact their effec­tive­ness and dura­bil­i­ty. More­over, fire­proof­ing comes in mul­ti­ple forms, name­ly cemen­ti­tious and intu­mes­cent (i.e., expand­ing). Depend­ing on their type and com­po­si­tion, some fire­proof­ing mate­ri­als are bet­ter suit­ed for spe­cif­ic con­di­tions (e.g., dry, humid, cold, warm, etc.). Installing the right fire­proof­ing prod­ucts in their opti­mal loca­tions is cru­cial for main­tain­ing your com­mer­cial fireproofing.

2. Con­duct Peri­od­ic Fire­proof­ing Inspections

Like any oth­er mate­r­i­al, fire­proof­ing mate­ri­als dete­ri­o­rate over time. Your building’s fire­proof­ing can also become dam­aged due to impact, inter­nal cli­mate fluc­tu­a­tions, and more. In most instances, you won’t notice if there’s an issue with your fire­proof­ing unless you take a close look at it. As such, con­duct­ing peri­od­ic visu­al inspec­tions for dam­age or poten­tial fail­ure are key to main­tain­ing their efficacy.

3. Repair and Replace Fire­proof­ing as Needed

Keep­ing an eye on your fire­proof­ing mate­ri­als will let you know if they require atten­tion. If so, you must not wait to repair or replace the dam­aged sec­tion as need­ed. Fire­proof patch­ing ser­vices come in handy in this regard.

Plan­ning to Pro­tect Your Facil­i­ty from Fire

Prop­er fire pro­tec­tion and pre­ven­tion is all about plan­ning and imple­ment­ing that plan with qual­i­ty instal­la­tion, suit­able prod­ucts, and ongo­ing main­te­nance. At Kaloutas, we han­dle all of these aspects of fire pro­tec­tion, deploy­ing effi­cient, unob­struc­tive meth­ods to keep our clients, their peo­ple, and their prop­er­ties safe. To learn more about us and all that we do, con­tact us online or give us a call at 978−532−1414 today.