Firestopping

What to Know About Firestopping

The Impor­tance of Firestopping

Firestop­ping is an essen­tial com­po­nent of a fire pre­ven­tion plan when cre­at­ing or repair­ing your com­mer­cial facil­i­ty. It isn’t just part of your typ­i­cal fire­proof instal­la­tion. It takes your fire­proof­ing to the next lev­el in every nook and cran­ny of your facil­i­ty that can with­stand fires and keep them from get­ting worse. 

Accord­ing to the Soci­ety of Fire Pro­tec­tion Engi­neers (SFPE), ​“It’s not uncom­mon to see a fire bar­ri­er pen­e­trat­ed dur­ing a minor build­ing alter­ation, and then the pen­e­trat­ing item isn’t pro­tect­ed by firestopping”. 

In order to mit­i­gate poten­tial haz­ards, you must ensure your build­ing has imple­ment­ed the prop­er firestop­ping through­out. Kaloutas is armed with knowl­edge and equip­ment to keep your oper­a­tions going and your assets protected. 

What Is Firestopping?

Firestop reduces the pas­sage of fire, smoke, and gas­es through a build­ing dur­ing a fire. These prod­ucts can come in the form of:

• Sealants

• Sprays

• Mechan­i­cal devices (firestop collar)

• Foam blocks or pillows

Dur­ing con­struc­tion or build­ing over­hauls and repairs, firestop­ping is imple­ment­ed by seal­ing off open­ings and joints to con­tain a fire and all the haz­ards that come with it. Firestop is typ­i­cal­ly found on facil­i­ty floor­ing, ceil­ings, and walls, in addi­tion to the typ­i­cal fire­proof­ing efforts.

What Will Firestop­ping Do for My Com­mer­cial Facility?

A room or ware­house with prop­er­ly installed firestop­ping will be up-to-code with fire-rat­ed walls, ceil­ings, and floors. Because these three areas con­tain sev­er­al small open­ings, with­out the prop­er pro­tec­tion, a fire will eas­i­ly dis­rupt them, hurt­ing the entire building’s integri­ty and spread­ing faster through­out. Fires can con­sume your assets in sec­onds, but when your firestop­ping works, it gives you and your peo­ple time to exit the build­ing as well as allow­ing more time for the fire depart­ment to arrive to reduce dam­ages. With­out such exten­sive loss, you are saved time and mon­ey in cost­ly repairs and downtime. 

How Can I Imple­ment Firestopping?

There are typ­i­cal­ly two appli­ca­tions for firestopping:

1. Around open­ings that are made in con­struc­tion for pipes, cables, or HVAC systems.

2. Where two assem­blies meet, form­ing an expan­sion joint such as the top of a wall or floor-to-floor joints.

As a Facil­i­ty Own­er, What Do I Need to Know?

You must always be aware of any issues in regards to facil­i­ty main­te­nance, inspec­tion, and doc­u­men­ta­tion of a facility’s in-place firestop­ping. Because fire codes dic­tate con­struc­tion, pro­tec­tion, and occu­pan­cy details of com­mer­cial build­ings, keep­ing up with these ever chang­ing codes is essen­tial to stay open and com­pli­ant. You have bet­ter things to wor­ry about when run­ning a busi­ness, so let the experts do the job for you with­out any work stop­page with a cus­tomized firestop­ping main­te­nance plan. 

How Kaloutas Will Help!

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. Con­tact us today to get start­ed on your firestop­ping plan with Kaloutas!