Friday, 5 April 2013

How To Fireproof Modern Homes & Offices

More and more houses and modern office blocks are being built out of steel and glass. Although the style statement is beautiful, fire proofing your building should be high on the agenda. Protecting your building from fire can be a life saving barrier.

The question is how can you take all the correct precautions? Inside the building you should have different compartments. Compartmentalising your building can help prevent a fire spreading further into the house or office as each compartment should be linked to a fire door or fire exit. Once you are connected to a fire door you should be safe, knowing that the door is protected by intumescent fire seals. Intumescent works by swelling up when it comes into contact with heat exposure. It then creates volume and decreases in density, therefore creating a barrier against the fire and smoke. It seals the edges and door frame so that once the door is closed you are fully protected from passive fire.

The outside of your building and the doors within should also be fireproofed as much as possible. Using fireproof intumescent paint on the doors and exterior can be a life saver in case of an emergency. Fireproof intumescent paint works by changing its nature from a decorative paint into an intumescent layer of carbonaceous char. This means that once the coating is subjected to heat, it will expand. The paint goes from one single layer into a layer that is 50 times the thickness!

Once the paint is heated to about 100 degrees or above this protection layer is naturally created. The layer of char grows as the fire grows, increasing the insulation required. These paint products are safe to use and are water based, making the application easy to achieve without a professional or any complications.

Protect buildings and surfaces with intumescent coatings

If you want to ensure that a building or structure stays strong and protected then think about getting intumescent coatings. With intumescent varnish you can ensure that the structure of a building is protected while its architectural features are enhanced. These products are affordable as well as easy to use making them well worthwhile.

If you want to ensure that you have a high quality and weather resistant varnish which is fire proof, then you will want to make sure you are using an intumescent varnish. These varnishes offer enhancement to a building’s architectural or historic features whilst also offering protection.

Intumescent fire varnish comes in a range of colours and can be used on many surfaces, from timber to steel and more. With so many uses it is no surprise it is very popular and it is also easily applied. This can be done with a brush or a roller or for those who know how to use it, an airless spray.

Intumescent fire varnish offers an affordable and easy way to protect structural steel in a building, and the material can be used both indoors and out. This means that it is flexible making it well worth investing in as it has so many uses and is so important for protecting buildings.

It is important to have fire protection of this sort as it works in a particular way to be very effective. When heat in a fire triggers it, a reaction is caused which sees an insulating char layer expand up to 50 times the paint film thickness. This ensures that any steel underneath is kept well below its critical temperature. This then maintains the structural stability of the building, making it a worthwhile investment to get this intumescent varnish.