Why Fire Stopping is Crucial During Commercial Office Renovations

Objectives

• To find a clear definition of what fire stopping is and why it is an essential cornerstone of fire safety of offices during refurbishments.
• To map the general, obscure fire hazards being brought about in contemporary office fit-outs.
• To inform the property managers on the most up-to-date UK fire safety legislation, such as the effects of the Building Safety Act.
• To emphasize the role of enlisting the services of accredited passive fire protection contractors in protecting your life, property and authenticating your business insurance policies.

Key Takeaways

• Although even simple improvements like laying out IT cables or installing air conditioning can cause a significant loss in the fire resistance of a building, in the event that the gaps created are not sealed.
• In the UK, fire stopping is a mandatory law in Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order of 2005 and Approved Document B of Building Regulations.
• Common failures during fit-outs include the misuse of standard expanding foam and leaving hidden voids entirely unprotected.
• Keeping fire compartmentation compliant does not only save lives but also forms a very rigid requirement of commercial property insurance cover.

Introduction

The next thing that comes to your mind when thinking of office renovation is the contemporary open-plan designs, the lighting system, and the setup of an efficient workplace to your employees. What seldom comes to mind are the dozens of holes, cracks and secret fissures that are being dug through the walls, floors, and ceilings to ensure that these modern facilities work.

Nevertheless, as far as the office fire safety is concerned, these structural changes represent the most important part of your fit-out. During the process of refurbishing any given property, the structural boundaries are usually compromised to install new pipes, electric cables and ventilation sewage. When these penetrations are not properly covered up or are improperly covered, they provide a backdoor of superhighway through which the deadly smoke, the toxic gases and the flames can travel very fast through different rooms.

It is at this point that fire stopping comes in. It is the unseen barrier which keeps the fire integrity of your office intact and keeps a small, localized event into a disastrous event. In case you are looking at fire protection Surrey services that can be trusted, you have to know how the fire stops work in order to protect your business premises.

Table of Contents

1. What Actually is Fire Stopping?
2. Q&A: How Does an Office Layout Change Compromise Fire Safety?
3. Navigating UK Fire Safety Regulations
4. Common Fire Stopping Failures to Avoid on Site
5. Protecting Your Assets and Insurance Premiums
6. Don’t Let a 10mm Gap Cost You Your Business
7. Frequently Asked Questions

What Actually is Fire Stopping? (And How Does it Differ from Fireproofing?)

It is a common misconception in the construction industry that fire stopping and fireproofing are the same thing. While both are vital forms of passive fire protection, they serve completely different purposes.

• Fireproofing is the process of insulating structural elements, such as load-bearing steel columns and beams, using intumescent coatings or fireproof boards. The goal here is to stop the building from collapsing under intense heat.
• Fire Stopping, on the other hand, is the meticulous process of sealing the openings, joints, and gaps within a building’s structure. It focuses entirely on “compartmentation”—keeping the fire trapped in the specific room where it ignited.

Fire stopping involves use of specialised, third party tested materials, including intumescent sealants that swell up when they expose to high temperatures. This growth literally squashes melting plastic pipes and closes the opening firmly against the further appearance of smoke and flames.

How Does an Office Layout Change Compromise Fire Safety?

We are just moving a few partition walls and adding new internet servers. How does this affect our fire risk?

The business spaces are evolving at a very fast rate where most of the commercial offices are being subdivided or reconfigurated to suit the new working methodology. The biggest problem is that these works tend to destroy the passive fire protection which is installed in the structure of the building.

New technology and climate control are very important in modern office renovations. Fire rated compartment walls are often drilled in order to install high speed cables and new plumbing lines by the contractors. This is dangerous because such contractors can end up doing a great job in installing the electrical or plumbing systems, but they are not experts in fire safety and leave a gap where the new installation is placed. The industry statistics indicate that a small 10 mm opening left unsealed around a cable could enable sufficient amounts of toxic smoke to escape through an escape route, and therefore make it unpassable within few minutes.

Also, renovations tend to change the usage of a building. An area which was previously a low risk storage room could be transformed to a high risk server room. Unless the fire stopping is revised to indicate this risk change, the whole building is left appallingly exposed.

Are you currently planning an office renovation or recently completed a fit-out? Do not leave your building’s safety to chance. Contact CA Fire Protection today for expert fire protection Surrey and the wider South East. Let our accredited passive fire protection contractors ensure your compartmentation is fully compliant.

Navigating UK Fire Safety Regulations

The fire stopping in the UK is not an additional feature, but a mandatory law. It is a legal duty of the responsible person, who is identified as the employer, building owner or facilities manager, in all the non-domestic buildings to comply with the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, which puts the legal responsibility of fire safety squarely on the responsible person.

Moreover, a far stricter regime has been established due to the introduction of the Building Safety Act that has put the accountability of the duty holders and the golden thread of safety information permanently into the limelight. Your building must be able to prove, digitally, that it is safe, and certified products were used.

Also, the UK is experiencing a huge change in its regulations, which leaves behind the older system of fire testing, BS 476, and moves to a more demanding BS EN 13501 European classification system. When your renovation contractors are working with the old-fashioned and non-compliant materials, then they may be faced with enforcement notices, hefty fines or even prosecution.

Common Fire Stopping Failures to Avoid on Site

In the event of the fire stopping failure during the renovation, it can nearly always be attributed to human error, work done out of sequence, or improper planning. These are the typical mistakes that should be acutely noticed by a building manager or owner:

• Treating Fire Stopping as an Afterthought: Fire stopping should be planned from the initial design stage. When it is treated as a final clean-up task just before handover, contractors often rush, leaving hidden voids in ceilings or raised floors completely unsealed.
• Using the Wrong Materials (The “Pink Foam” Problem): A frequent and dangerous mistake is the misuse of Polyurethane (PU) foam, commonly known as ‘fire foam’. Local Authority Building Control (LABC) has cautioned that this has been abused by contractors who erroneously assume that covering a mass of foam around a pipe is effective in fire stopping because it is bulky. It does not.
• Lack of Third-Party Accreditation: Using untested firestop products is a massive liability. All products must be third-party certificated (such as by UKAS-accredited schemes) to prove a traceable link between the factory and the laboratory test. Replacing a less expensive sealant or improper installation of a sealant turns a tested system of life-safety into an untested experiment.
• Neglect in regards to Temporary Seals: When cables are being pulled through during a phased fit-out, temporary seals are commonly installed but regrettably never converted to permanent compliant fire stops after the work is completed.

Protecting Your Assets and Insurance Premiums

Beyond the paramount importance of saving lives, proper fire stopping is a vital commercial asset. By containing a fire to a single room or floor, you drastically reduce the rate at which the fire spreads, giving emergency services vital time to arrive and intervene. This directly limits the amount of structural damage, lost stock, and destroyed equipment.

The UK insurance industry has become increasingly stringent following recent high-profile commercial fires. According to data from the Fire Protection Association (FPA), large commercial fires carry a massive average financial loss of £657,074 per incident. Consequently, insurance companies are now actively demanding proof of compliance with fire safety regulations. Proper installation and ongoing maintenance of passive fire protection systems are frequently becoming strict conditions of coverage. If a fire breaks out and investigators find that your fit-out compromised the building’s compartmentation, your insurance policy could be completely voided.

Don’t Let a 10mm Gap Cost You Your Business

Office renovation must put new life in your business and not pose unseen, life threatening danger. The design of the walls and floors is being continuously tested, as building designs evolve and new technology is being incorporated in the walls and floors.

The only way that you can be sure that your building is a safe legally compliant environment to house your staff and visitors is by treating fire stopping as an important, integrated component of your refurbishment programme. Do not let a simple, unsealed hole for an IT cable be the reason a small localised incident turns into a catastrophic loss. Give preference to accredited expertise at the beginning of the planning of your project.

This is because you should not wait until a fire risk assessment unearths unsafe deficiencies about your building venturing into compartmentation. Whether you are mid-renovation or moving into a newly fitted office, CA Fire Protection provides expert, fully accredited services. To have the best fire protection that Surrey has to offer, call us today on 020 8066 0909 or email us with the information to infofireprotection.co.uk to book your free passive fire protection survey and have your peace of mind.