Construction World April 2017

PRODUCTS & SERVICES

Misunderstandings about fire door legalities An alarming level of misunderstanding about fire doors exists among specifiers, manufacturers and installers, says Bob Vollmer, director of Bitcon Industries in Jet Park.

Bitcon – one of the oldest manufacturers of fire, transformer, radiation and security doors in Africa – is this year celebrating its 50 th year of operations. Vollmer states: “The current regulation SANS 1253 2003 require all fire doors to be supplied as factory pre-hung door and frame units and to be labelled, confirming compliance with the relevant fire rating. Legislation calls for specific information – such as the manufacturers’ name, serial number, date of manufacture and the fire classification rating – to be legibly and indelibly displayed on the labels. It must be clearly conveyed to developers, contractors or sub-contractors – such as painters – that theses labels must not be removed or painted over,” Vollmer cautioned. “In the case of Class E fire doors – often installed in ‘low risk’ areas, such as between a garage and a domestic dwelling – all too often the fire door is not supplied as a unit and is hung on unsuitable wooden frames. This completely negates the fire insulation qualities of the door and puts the owner or tenant at risk as they have no assurances and recourse when supplied with doors that are not capable of fulfilling the function for which they were intended,” he stated. If clients are in any doubt regarding the legitimacy of their fire door, they should request the manufacturers to supply their test report for the specified fire rating for the type of door to supplied – be it a single, double or sliding door. A single door test report does not automatically cover the full spectrum of fire doors: each type, whether single, double, or sliding, has to be tested. Manufacturers should also supply a test report in respect of doors fitted with viewing panels, which are permitted in certain door classifications. “Above all, the test report should be issued in the manufacturers’ name and be a true reflection of the door supplied – especially in respect of the core material used in the construction of the door. Should a manufacturer change the core material of the doors, the producer cannot continue using the previous door test report and the doors with the new core material have to be re-tested.

One of Bitcon’s renowned double fire doors. The company is this year celebrating its 50 th anniversary.

“The use of test reports in the name of other manufacturers is not permitted even when similar core material is used. “Bitcon believes the professions have the responsibility to verify that the fire door installed by contractors is, in fact, the fire door that was specified. Too often, alternate and cheaper fire doors are installed, ignoring the original specification. No attempt is then usually made to obtain specifiers’ approval for the cheaper door installed. The result invariably is either costly legislation or expensive remedial work in the event of a fire,” Vollmer added. 

New standard for road-marking paint Kansai Plascon’s BTP brick and concrete paint product is available in different colours, and adheres to notoriously difficult substrates. It also outlasts competitor products by a significant margin, setting a new benchmark in the road-marking sector in particular.

The performance review focused on a range of high-traffic sites. One such site was the entrance to the parking garage at N1 City. Here about 250 cars traverse old exposed aggregate paving daily. An undiluted single coat of BTP was applied on 19 February 2015. A subsequent inspection in September 2015 and again in September 2016 found the road markings to be virtually unaffected. “The long term performance study enabled us to determine how well this product performed under normal and abnormal traffic conditions,” Bunn explains. “This product outperformed even my expectations. We now have a thoroughly tried-and-tested alternative to traditional road-marking paint on difficult surfaces.” 

This is according to a successful two- year performance study conducted on behalf of an established customer. PC & Industrial Technical consultant Anita Bunn comments that such is Kansai Plascon’s confidence in the performance and quality of this product that “we were willing to undertake the study”. She elaborates: “The client wanted a technical report to submit to their engineers to validate the performance of the product for their own use. The study

would also assist in securing new business, while obtaining valuable performance results on this particular product in real-time practical conditions.” Kansai Plascon’s BTP product is a solvent-based brick and concrete marking paint, designed specifically for cementitious and other surfaces such as kerb stones and interlocking bricks. “These are all surfaces notoriously difficult to paint with a coating that will last for longer than six months,” Bunn points out.

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CONSTRUCTION WORLD APRIL 2017