Fire stopping in Henley-on-Thames
A shop below and a flat above. The floor between them has to hold.
Get a priceSome buildings do two jobs at once.
A shop or a restaurant on the ground floor, with a flat or two above. The business downstairs has a kitchen, a stockroom, extract ducts and wiring. The people upstairs are asleep.
The floor between them is the fire line. Everything that passes through it has to be sealed.
What goes through that floor
Extract ducts from a kitchen, running up through the flat or beside it.
Pipes serving both the business and the flat, rising together.
Cables for the shop's lighting and alarms.
Old openings. A staircase that was moved. A hatch that was blocked. A pipe that was taken out.
Each of these can leave a gap, and each is directly under somebody's bed.
What makes it harder
The building is often old, and the floor may be timber joists with a ceiling below, not a concrete slab. Seals for that construction are tested differently, so we need to know what it is.
Spaces are small. The gap may be above a shop ceiling with very little headroom.
The shop and the flat may belong to different people. A landlord may own both, or the flat may be on a long lease. That is a conversation for you, but it affects who we deal with.
How we approach it
We look at what the floor is made of before we choose anything.
Ducts get a seal tested for ducts. Plastic pipes get collars or wraps. Small gaps round cables get mastic.
We try to work in the hours when the shop is shut, so the business does not lose a day.
Henley and the county line
Henley-on-Thames is in Oxfordshire, so fire safety is enforced by Oxfordshire Fire and Rescue Service, not the Berkshire one, and the district council is South Oxfordshire. The rules we work to are the same.
If you have a notice from the fire service, send it with your enquiry.
What to send us
A photo of the ceiling in the shop, looking up at where pipes and ducts go through.
A photo of the flat's floor where a pipe comes through, if you can.
What the shop does. A kitchen means ducts, which means more to seal.
We come from Luton, and our BM TRADA / FIRAS-certificated contractors do the work.
Questions we get asked
Can you work after the shop closes?
Often, yes. Say what time the site is clear.
Do I need access to the flat?
Sometimes, to seal from above. We ask first.
Tell us what is going through it and what the wall is made of. We will come back with a price.
Get a price