All too often passive fire safety techniques hit the headlines when things go wrong. The risks to people and buildings are clear, but with safety measures stretching across disciplines as diverse as mechanical, electrical, plumbing and glazing it’s understandable that major contractors and building operators find it difficult to keep track. James Reid, passive fire safety expert at Gunfire Limited, part of The Gunite Group, outlines his top tips on specifying a fire stopping system.
Tip#1 Don’t expose yourself to risk
With a range of disciplines affected, passive fire safety is habitually dealt with piecemeal by each contractor having a share of responsibility, and no one person or company having oversight of the protection. This leads to faults within the fire stopping system that expose building owners, operators and residents to increased risk. Using certified companies that can take a building wide approach will significantly reduce the liability of contractors and building operators.
Tip#2 Plan ahead
Passive fire safety can sometimes be treated as an afterthought during construction, resulting in costly retrofit projects. Ensuring a fire protection contractor is on site as early as possible means the building adheres to a fire safety strategy and could minimise the number of penetrations in need of fire stopping, which will in turn reduce costs. By taking a forward thinking approach contractors and facilities management companies can save money and ensure effective cover.
Tip#3 Check accreditations
Fire stopping is a specialist trade where lives are at risk when things go wrong. In the same way that you wouldn’t select a structural engineering firm without proof that it could do the job at hand, or appoint a window cleaner to install glazing, you shouldn’t place fire safety responsibility with someone without the relevant credentials. Two of the top accreditations to look out for are from The Loss Prevention Certification Board (LPCB) and FIRAS. At Gunfire, we ensure all our operatives have these accreditations, which enables us to be flexible to the specification and the work carried out adheres to the relevant standards.
Tip#4 Ensure products are up to spec
All too often when non-specialists are asked to approach passive fire safety, products are purchased due to cost and not to suit the application, and have limited effectiveness. In some cases, where multiple contractors are involved, there are a mixture of products selected that are good in their own right but together don’t work as a fire stopping system, rendering their effectiveness as limited at best. This may then require a full retrofit to ensure complete cover.
Tip#5 Quality checking and sign off
Up until recently, fire safety audits used paper-based systems, which were cumbersome and subject to variation. Latest technology developments have allowed us not only to streamline this process, but also enable real-time checking of the fire safety system, with images and product details geotagged to the specific part of the building. This allows the information to be available and accessible, not just for the quantity surveyor at sign off, but also the facilities managers across the full lifespan of the building. Upon completion, clients are provided with access to a detailed database which plots relevant fire safety installations against a floor plan of the building, including images and costs. This marks a revolution in the way that fire safety installations can be monitored and recorded.
Gunfire is one of the UK’s leading passive fire safety contractors, to find out more visit www.gunite.co.uk/gunfire
