Surface Spread Of Flame

[jasper]

A client of mine has had a paint rep round saying that ''said since the RRO we must assess the surface spread of flame including how well the finish is adhered to the substrate'' is this correct or just sales patter?

[wee brian]

Mostly sales patter

There have been problems in the past in the stairwells of blocks of flats. Multiple layers of paint/anti graffiti treatments etc.

Any other building I wouldnt wory unless your walls are lined with something obviousely combustible - wood/carpet/poystyrene etc.

[kurnal]

Wow - thats another one for the risk assessment checklist. only 15000000 pages now and growing. What if the substrate is exposed - will we need to see how well it is adhered to its substrate? Nah- do the safe thing and burn off all the paint with a blowlamp.

[Mike Buckley]

OK it was the old days, but doesn't the problem of surface spread of flame only apply to escape routes where the requirement was for the lining of any escape corridor to be non combustable or Class '0'? ADB gives some guidance but the RRO seems to be very vague.

Best answer with sales patter is to ask technical questions like what classification does it come under in BS EN 13501 - 2002?

[Tom Sutton]

The old guidance certainly the hotels guide reccommended Class "O" in circulation spaces and escape routes. Class 1 in rooms, other than small rooms and places of assemble. Class 3 in small rooms(not exceeding 4m2). The building regs required Class "O" in circulation spaces and escape routes. Other guidance allowed class 1 in circulation spaces. Oh happy days

[Fishy]

This is a proven issue in communal buildings - typically where (for reasons of cost) they over-paint existing coats many times without stripping - typical of local authorites in the past.  Over time you get a build-up of layers that can be very hazardous if some oik decides to set fire to some rubbish in the communal staircases.  DTI have some guidance - "Code of practice - refurbishment of communal buildings and the fire risk of multilayer paints" published back in 2005 (ISBN 0-9551373-0-6) - costs £10-00.  If I were risk assessing such buildings, I'd certainly be considering this issue.