What Is Fireproof Patching and When Is It Useful in a Commercial Facility?

Fire­proof­ing is essen­tial for any com­mer­cial facil­i­ty. Fires can severe­ly dam­age, if not entire­ly destroy, even the most durable prop­er­ties, putting lives at risk and tak­ing a major hit to a busi­ness’s bot­tom line. Unfor­tu­nate­ly, no fire­proof solu­tion is per­ma­nent. Over time, fire­proof coat­ings can become dam­aged and/​or lose their effi­ca­cy. Reg­u­lar main­te­nance will extend the longevi­ty and dura­bil­i­ty of your fire­proof mate­ri­als and there­fore pro­tect your facil­i­ty as a whole — fire­proof patch­ing is a key part of this maintenance. 

What to Know About Fire­proof Patch­ing in Boston

What Is Fire­proof Patching?

Fire­proof patch­ing is the process of mend­ing any dam­aged fire­proofing(intumescent, spray-applied cemen­ti­tious, or oth­er coat­ings and sys­tems) to re-estab­lish a firm, con­tin­u­ous fire­proofed sur­face. In most cas­es, this method of reme­di­a­tion is the most effi­cient at restor­ing a facility’s fire­proof­ing. Pro­fes­sion­al con­trac­tors who spe­cial­ize in fire­proof patch­ing will assess the rel­e­vant dam­age to exist­ing fire­proof coat­ings and apply a dry or wet mix fire­proof­ing mate­r­i­al to coat the exposed areas. Ide­al­ly, this patch­ing sub­stance will match the look and con­sis­ten­cy of the sur­round­ing fire­proof coat­ings. This is done by hand, trow­el or if appro­pri­ate sprayed to cre­ate a seam­less appearance. 

The Impor­tance of Main­tain­ing Indus­tri­al Fireproofing

Fire­proof patch­ing plays an essen­tial role in keep­ing a facil­i­ty and all its occu­pants safe. While some minor dam­ages to your fire resis­tive paint or fire­proof­ing might not seem like a big deal, any area that lacks com­plete fire pro­tec­tion is at risk of severe dam­age in case of a fire. Steel, for instance (one of the most com­mon con­struc­tion mate­ri­als), can lose approx­i­mate­ly 40% of its integri­ty after being exposed to tem­per­a­tures of 1,000 °F and 90% of its strength at 1,500 °F. While par­tial fire­proof­ing will offer some pro­tec­tion to a giv­en sur­face, those gaps can quick­ly become the weak points that trig­ger seri­ous dam­age or com­plete collapse.

Even min­i­mal fire dam­age can result in expen­sive repairs and fines. More­over, dam­aged fire­proof­ing can quick­ly become an eye­sore, dam­ag­ing your rep­u­ta­tion, pro­duc­tiv­i­ty, and employ­ee morale. Patch­ing dam­aged fire­proof­ing is a quick and easy way to avoid all of these neg­a­tive out­comes, so it’s well worth the effort.

Uses and Ben­e­fits of Fire­proof Patching

Fire­proof patch­ing comes in handy when­ev­er cemen­ti­tious, or intu­mes­cent fire pro­tec­tive coat­ings under­go dam­age or oth­er­wise lose their poten­cy. That said, there are sec­ondary rea­sons to patch your fire­proof­ing. Name­ly, prop­er­ly patch­ing your fire­proof coat­ings allows you to main­tain manda­to­ry fire resis­tance rat­ings in your facil­i­ty (code com­pli­ance) and/​or to bring it up to code. Of course, to adhere to these stan­dards, the patch­ing com­pounds you use must be test­ed and applied cor­rect­ly. Imple­ment­ing patch­es with unap­proved or incor­rect coat­ings can result in safe­ty risks, com­pli­ance issues, and oth­er lia­bil­i­ties. As such, your indus­tri­al paint­ing and main­te­nance ven­dor must know the ins and outs of your facility’s fire­proof­ing needs, as well as be able to cus­tomize and test patch­ing mate­ri­als to keep your facil­i­ty safe, com­pli­ant, and operational.

The Kaloutas Difference

Kaloutas is expe­ri­enced in apply­ing cus­tomized intu­mes­cent fire­proof­ing and fire­proof patch­ing in a vari­ety of indus­tri­al and com­mer­cial facil­i­ties. The fiber­glass-based spray applied ther­mal-acousti­cal insu­la­tion we use is com­pat­i­ble with most fire­proof­ing prod­ucts, mak­ing it less of a has­sle to patch in the future. These prod­ucts also deliv­er the required noise reduc­tion and R‑values in tan­dem with fire-resis­tance mate­ri­als. Our projects result in effec­tive, code-com­pli­ant, visu­al­ly pleas­ing fire­proof patch­ing. And, last but not least, we get the job done on your sched­ule, accord­ing to your safe­ty and secu­ri­ty demands. We work the way you work to min­i­mize inter­fer­ence and keep your oper­a­tions flowing.

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