Fire stopping and passive fire protection
Sealing the gaps that let fire and smoke spread between parts of a building: around pipes, cables and ductwork, where old services have been removed, and on structural steel.
Why fire stopping matters
Buildings are divided into fire-resisting compartments, by walls and floors designed to hold a fire back for a set time. That only works if the walls and floors stay complete. Every time a pipe, cable or duct is passed through one, or a service is removed and the hole left open, a route opens up for fire and smoke.
Fire stopping closes those routes with products that have been tested to restore the fire resistance of the wall or floor around the service. Done properly, it’s invisible. Missing or wrong, it’s often only found after a fire, or during a survey.
What we do
- Sealing service penetrations: cables, pipes and ductwork passing through fire-resisting walls and floors
- Fire sleeves and collars for cable routes and plastic pipes, including systems that let cables be added later
- Filling voids left when redundant services are removed
- Fire batt and sealant systems around ductwork and mixed services
- Intumescent coatings on structural steel
- Inspections of existing fire stopping, with what we found and what needs putting right
We use third-party certified fire stopping products and install them to the manufacturer’s tested details, because a product is only certified for the way it was tested. Our installation work is certified under IFSM.
Who it’s for
- Building owners and managing agents putting right gaps found in a fire risk assessment or compartmentation survey.
- Contractors and developers who need penetrations sealed as services are installed, before ceilings go up.
- Facilities teams after IT, electrical or plumbing work has left holes in fire walls.
If you’re not sure whether a wall or floor is meant to be fire resisting, your fire risk assessment or the building’s fire strategy should say. We can help you work it out.
Keeping it right
Fire stopping is easily undone by later work. A new cable run, a replaced pipe or a moved socket can all leave a gap. It’s worth making sure anyone working in your building knows which walls and floors are fire resisting, and asking us to check after significant work.
A fire risk assessment should take account of compartmentation, so the two often go together.
Recent fire stopping work
Intumescent coating on structural steel
Main support steelwork coated with intumescent paint to provide the fire protection the building required.
Filling a void left by a removed service pipe
A large void, left when a redundant pipe was stripped out, filled to reinstate the wall’s fire protection.
Sealing around ductwork through a compartment wall
Fire batt used to seal the void around circular HVAC ductwork passing between building compartments.
Fire stopping around server room cable penetrations
A fire sleeve system that lets cables be added or removed over time without further fire protection work.
Common questions
What’s the difference between fire stopping and passive fire protection?
Passive fire protection is everything built into a building to contain fire without needing to be switched on: fire-resisting walls, floors, doors, coatings on steel and fire stopping. Fire stopping is the part that seals the gaps where services pass through.
Can you seal around cables that will change in future?
Yes. Some fire sleeve and cable transit systems let cables be added or removed later without redoing the fire stopping, which suits server rooms and comms risers.
Do you work outside East Anglia?
Yes. Fire stopping work is also carried out further afield. Tell us where the project is when you ask for a quote.
Need help with fire stopping?
Tell us what’s due, and we’ll take it from there.