What is fireproofing and why is it important?

Fireproofing is about preventing fire and smoke from spreading in a building before it has been evacuated. Fireproofing reduces the risk of major collapses and serious damage – to materials and to people. Fireproofing is therefore of the utmost importance.

When you fireproof, you secure spaces for a specified time. This means that you make sure that an enclosed space can withstand a fire for a specific time. How long is already determined at the design stage. By covering cavities and penetrations made for pipes and cables, for example, a so-called fire cell can withstand smoke, gas and flames for the time needed to evacuate the space.

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In other words, fireproofing is important, even vital. Without proper fire sealing, the building will collapse and the space will fill with so much smoke that people will not survive. Fire sealing is most common in public spaces such as multi-storey buildings, hospitals, swimming pools, sports halls and the like, where many people are present and the importance of buying time for evacuation is high.

But it is not only that you fireproof that is important, but also how. There are several ways to do fireproofing and many factors that influence how you should proceed. Therefore, before starting the work, there are questions that need to be answered and important information that needs to be gathered. In order for the work to be carried out correctly and for the result to be as desired, the fireproofing needs to be done with the right solution and based on the right conditions.

What and where are you going to fireproof? What are the requirements for the given location and environment? Find out more about what you need to know before you can start.