Approaching an existing building with services already installed can create some complexity when catering to the installation of a compliant passive fire protection system. A non-compliant penetration may have missing or deteriorated fire collars and sealants, use of combustible materials to fill gaps, or oversized penetrations where nothing is in place to protect the spread of fire.

When you are retrofitting, a tested system should always be utilised to treat the service but sometimes this is not practical because of construction techniques at the time of the build or access into the service areas where the penetrations are in place. An “as near as reasonably practicable”, ANARP, principle-based system may need to be utilised, with the proposed solution being based on tested systems with a consideration of the risk and that the building, as a whole, will have an overall improvement in fire and accessibility standards.

When you have a “live building”, you are working on a service or system that is functioning so it cannot be adapted easily to suit a passive fire protection system’s specific installation tolerance. Having a product range that caters to the varied installation types, substrates and passive fire penetration service sizes can mean a compliant tested solution can be installed to stop the spread of fire which in turn protects lives and limits property damage. 
It should always be stated that fire stopping isn’t a “set and forget” system with maintenance and ongoing compliance checks needing to be carried out to confirm that the fire cells aren’t being compromised.

Allproof Industries manufactures and distributes passive fire products which cater to a new or existing building with a wide range of passive fire protection systems for service penetrations that contribute to the building’s overall integrity. The TBA FIREFLY range has systems that protect the building’s structure for compartmentation and can also cater to the fire rated seismic joints that are required in most New Zealand buildings.

The Allproof Industries passive fire technical team can help with installation techniques and training guidelines across our passive fire products range, so feel free to reach out for assistance.