Fire stopping in Marlow
Roof spaces and older walls. The places where hidden gaps run furthest.
Get a priceLook up first.
In an older building the biggest gaps are not in the corridor. They are above it, in the loft or the roof void, where walls that look solid below stop short of the roof covering.
If you own or manage an older property in Marlow, that is where to start.
What a roof void can hide
A dividing wall that stops at the ceiling. Below it, a proper fire wall. Above it, a clear run along the whole roof space.
Cables and pipes through the top of those walls, with no seal.
A hatch that opens straight into a neighbouring part of the building.
Old chimney breasts and flues, taken out below and left as a void above.
A cavity barrier fitted across the void closes that run. Batts or board fill the gaps round services.
Older walls behave differently
Thick brick or stone, lath and plaster, and mixed repairs over the years can mean the wall is not the same all the way across.
Products are tested on certain wall types. If your wall is not one of them, the choice needs care, and we may suggest an assessor's view before we proceed.
If the building is listed, the council's conservation team may need to agree before you alter a wall. Ask before booking us.
What to tell us
The age of the building, as near as you know it, and what is below the roof. A shop, a flat, an office?
Is there a hatch, and is the floor up there boarded? Crawl boards add an hour to a job and we price for them.
Whether the roof space runs over more than one property. Smoke that gets into a shared loft can come down into the neighbour's bedroom.
Push your head and a torch through the hatch and take three photos, one along each direction. That alone tells us a lot.
Who to talk to
Marlow is in Buckinghamshire. Fire safety is enforced by Buckinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service, and building control is through Buckinghamshire Council, not a Berkshire authority. The rules are the same on both sides of the border and the offices you phone are not.
We come from Luton. Roof-space jobs go into full days, because rigging ladders, lights and boards takes a good part of the morning. Our BM TRADA / FIRAS-certificated contractors do the sealing.
Questions we get asked
Is roof work dusty?
Loft insulation and years of dust come up with it. Sheets go down, and the crew clears as it goes.
What if the roof space has no boarding at all?
Then the crew works from crawl boards laid across the joists. It is slower, and the price says so.
Tell us what is going through it and what the wall is made of. We will come back with a price.
Get a price