When it comes to building and designing large buildings, one of the biggest concerns architects face is the safety of the people inside of it. Whether it’s calculating the load of the building and whether it can withstand the weight of ensuring that the building won’t be affected by adverse weather such as strong winds, there are plenty of considerations to keep in mind and some of them might completely go over one’s head, especially when one’s renovating an existing office or a commercial property.
However, arguably one of the most important security concerns to keep in mind is fire stopping. When a fire starts, it doesn't take long for it to spread around and affect virtually everything in the building. If a fire starts on the 1st floor of a building, then one will need to consider countermeasures to ensure that everyone above the 1st floor can make it out of the structure safely. So let’s talk about fire stopping, why it’s important, and the type of products one should consider to stop fires from spreading around one’s building.
What exactly is fire stopping?
Fire stopping is a passive fire protection system with components used to seal openings As the name suggests, fire stopping is a passive fire protection system that is made up of several different components that are used to seal openings and prevent the spread of fire around a building. It’s done by creating fire-resistant compartments that can contain fires so that they do not spread to surrounding buildings or compartments that could eventually overtake and engulf the entire building.
The system should ensure that openings and gaps are fire-stopped so that the fires cannot spread vertically or laterally across a building. In short, it’s a system that is made to prevent fires from spreading across a building and it uses various different tools that are built into the structure of one’s building.
Products used for fire stopping
There’s a large selection of products that are designed specifically for fire stopping.
- Fire Covers: These typically provide around an hour of fire resistance and are used for ceilings. When it’s on fire, it expands internally to create a fire-resistant material that prevents the vertical spread of fire.
- Fire Sleeves: These are used to fill or seal an aperture that is created by a pipe or cable. These are especially important in office buildings. During a fire, they expand to fill the space around the pipes it is covering to prevent fires from spreading. In the case of plastic pipes, the sleeve will physically crush the pipe to prevent a fire from spreading.
- Fire Collars: Collars are designed to maintain fire resistance levels by surrounding pipes and other penetrations with intumescent compounds that expand when it comes in contact with heat. This creates a fire-resistant seal, closing off the service component and creating an insulating barrier.
- Fire Sealant and Filler: Lastly, there’s fire sealant and gap filler which expands when heated at a high temperature. This prevents the spread of smoke and fire throughout a building and there are many different types of fire sealant and filler.
