Why Your Building Needs Intumescent Coatings for Comprehensive Fire Protection

Com­mer­cial fires result in the loss of bil­lions of dol­lars each year and put count­less lives at risk. In a per­fect world, we would find ways to stop each and every one of these fires from break­ing out. Unfor­tu­nate­ly, this force of nature can­not be oust­ed com­plete­ly, espe­cial­ly when so many facil­i­ties rely on elec­tric­i­ty, gas, chem­i­cals, and oth­er igni­tion sources. As such, busi­ness­es must invest in prop­er fire pro­tec­tion mea­sures to mit­i­gate the risk of fires and their detri­men­tal effects. Fire­proof coat­ings are key com­po­nents in these fire pro­tec­tion mea­sures. Here’s why intu­mes­cent coat­ings in par­tic­u­lar are a cru­cial part of com­pre­hen­sive fire pro­tec­tion in many facilities.

What Is the Pur­pose of an Intu­mes­cent Coating?

Intu­mes­cent paint is an insu­la­tive coat­ing that expands when exposed to flames. When dor­mant, these coat­ings don’t look any dif­fer­ent from oth­er types of paint, but extreme­ly high tem­per­a­tures trig­ger a chem­i­cal reac­tion that swells the coat­ings into a foam-like sub­stance. This addi­tion­al vol­ume cre­ates more dis­tance between the flames and the under­ly­ing pro­tect­ed sur­faces, reduc­ing the amount of heat that reach­es them. As a result, intu­mes­cent coat­ings help pre­vent struc­tur­al col­lapse and pro­vide more time for occu­pants to calm­ly and safe­ly exit the build­ing while fire­fight­ers make their way over.

Let’s go over the key advan­tages of intu­mes­cent coatings.

Ben­e­fits of Intu­mes­cent Coatings

Applic­a­ble to Many Surfaces

Many sur­faces with­in a giv­en facil­i­ty require some lev­el of fire pro­tec­tion, so it’s for­tu­nate that intu­mes­cent paint can be applied to a wide vari­ety of mate­ri­als, such as con­crete, wood, gyp­sum, and struc­tur­al steel. Struc­tur­al steel stands to ben­e­fit the most from intu­mes­cent coat­ings, as these com­po­nents are respon­si­ble for keep­ing a build­ing upright – should your facility’s steel fea­tures exceed 1,100 degrees Fahren­heit, they can begin to fail. When prop­er­ly applied and main­tained, intu­mes­cent coat­ings great­ly reduce the risk of such catastrophes.

High­ly Durable and Easy to Maintain

Intu­mes­cent coat­ings are also durable. Though these coat­ings require replace­ment after the event of a fire, they oth­er­wise can with­stand many nat­ur­al pres­sures you can expect to find with­in a facil­i­ty, such as changes in tem­per­a­ture and humid­i­ty, impact, and more. What’s more, should your intu­mes­cent coat­ings under­go dam­age, they’re rel­a­tive­ly easy to touch-up via fire­proof patch­ing. As long as you keep your eye on these fire­proof coat­ings, they should pro­vide peace of mind for a long time.

Aes­thet­i­cal­ly Pleasing

You might assume that fire­proof coat­ings would call atten­tion to them­selves, harm­ing your interior’s atmos­phere. On the con­trary, intu­mes­cent fire­proof paint is dif­fi­cult to dis­tin­guish from oth­er types of paint. More­over, these coat­ings come in a vari­ety of col­ors, so you can match your building’s inte­ri­or aes­thet­ic while also pro­tect­ing its sur­faces from flames.

Con­ducive to Compliance

Invest­ing in intu­mes­cent fire­proof­ing is an impor­tant step in pro­tect­ing your peo­ple and assets from poten­tial fires – that said, your build­ing may also need these coat­ings for reg­u­la­to­ry rea­sons. Indeed, orga­ni­za­tions like OSHA and NFPA (Nation­al Fire Pro­tec­tion Asso­ci­a­tion) cre­ate and over­see fire safe­ty reg­u­la­tions for U.S. busi­ness­es. Depend­ing on the cir­cum­stances, it might be nec­es­sary for your busi­ness to coat its struc­tur­al ele­ments with intu­mes­cent fire pro­tec­tive coat­ings. Fail­ing to meet rel­e­vant fire codes can result in heavy fines and oth­er seri­ous penal­ties, so intu­mes­cent coat­ings can help your build­ing stay out of both lit­er­al and fig­u­ra­tive hot water.

Make Sure Your Fire Pro­tec­tion Is All-Encompassing

Com­pre­hen­sive fire pro­tec­tion cov­ers a lot of bases. With­out the right fire­proof coat­ings, your build­ing is at greater risk of dam­age, struc­tur­al col­lapse, legal fees, and more. Kaloutas is here to help you keep your build­ing safe, secure, and com­pli­ant with our range of fire­proof­ing ser­vices. To learn more about us and all that we do, con­tact us online or give us a call at 978−532−1414 today.