Fire stopping in Biggleswade
Large units, long walls and a lot of cable trays going through them.
Get a priceBiggleswade is a market town in Central Bedfordshire, on the A1.
We would expect the larger share of fire stopping work here to be commercial. Warehouses, trade units, offices and business parks. Those are the places where a dividing wall is long and a lot of services go through it.
One wall, many trades
A unit is often split from the next by a masonry wall. When a tenant moves in, an electrician takes cable trays through that wall. A heating contractor takes pipework through it. An alarm installer takes a cable through a hole they drilled for the purpose.
Each trade makes a hole to suit themselves. Not all of them seal behind.
On a unit wall we look at the top first, where the wall meets the roof or the deck. If the wall stops short, there is a gap above it the whole length. See cavity barriers for that.
Then we look at every tray, pipe and duct passing through, one at a time.
Cable trays
A tray with many cables is one of the harder openings to seal. The opening is large, and cables get added over the years.
We seal round the tray with board and sealant, or fit a pillow or a similar system that can be opened and closed again when new cable goes in. Which one is used depends on how often the tray changes.
Ask your electrician to tell you before they add cable. Otherwise the seal gets broken and not replaced.
Ducts
Ductwork through a fire wall is a different question, because the duct itself may need to close in a fire. That is a damper, and fitting or testing a damper is a specialist job. We deal with the gap around the duct where it passes through, and we say if a damper looks missing.
Insurance and fire risk assessments
If an insurer or fire risk assessor has asked for fire stopping to be checked on a unit, send us what they wrote. We work from that, and we give you a record to show them afterwards.
Getting to Biggleswade
We travel from Luton and do not have an office in the town. A big unit is a day or two on site, so the travel is not what costs the money.
The fire and rescue service for Biggleswade is Bedfordshire Fire and Rescue Service.
Questions we get asked
Do I need to seal the wall between two units?
If it is a fire wall, any opening in it should be sealed. Your assessor or the building's design documents will say which walls those are.
Can you work in a unit that is still trading?
Often yes, if we agree the areas and the days in advance.
Tell us the building, how many floors and what has been found. We will say what we need to see and give you a rough estimate.
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