Nelson Firestop Tenmat Fire-Rated Lighting Covers
Up until a couple of years ago, when I was involved with a home remodel that involved a lot of recessed lighting, I never really thought about the fire risk involved. I’ve always liked recessed high-hats, but my musings about them pretty much always went along the lines of: “Wow, those look nice,” and “When will I be able to afford lighting like that?” On the other hand, watching them being installed makes you realize a couple of things that should be, but often aren’t, obvious characteristics of can light fixtures.
First of all, when they run for any length of time, lightbulbs get hot. Which brings me to my second point: when it comes to recessed lighting, all of that bulb-generated heat is building up inside your ceiling. See any potential for problems there? To be fair, can lights are called “can lights” because they’re enclosed in a (you guessed it) can-like structure that provides a measure of safety by isolating the hot bulb from surrounding building materials. But once in a while, a recessed lighting fire does break out, and it’s a smart idea to have some backup in place just in case that flaming light fixture happens to be in your home or business.
That’s where Tenmat fire-rated lighting covers by Nelson Firestop come in handy. These cup-shaped mineral fiber coverings actually fit around each high hat, to provide extra insulation between light fixtures and ceiling materials. And in the event that fire does occur, they intumesce (that is, expand and char upon exposure to high heat) to seal out smoke and prevent your ceiling from igniting. It’s a simple preventive measure to take, but it can ultimately prevent or greatly reduce fire spread and structural damage.
3M™ Fire Barrier Pillows
You’ve heard of firestopping caulk and foam, but… pillows? Yes, you read that correctly. Pillows. Namely 3M™ Fire Barrier Pillows, little bundles of intumescent material that can be used to fill in and firestop larger wall penetrations, like the ones you get when you run exceptionally large cable trays from one room to the next. These are what you turn to when gaps are so big that soft materials like foam and caulk just don’t have the structural integrity to do the job – as a matter of fact, they’re UL listed to firestop openings up to 540 square inches.
Installing 3M™ Fire Barrier Pillows is a no-mess project – just fit enough into the gap to completely close it , and you’re done. Unless gaps that are too small to be filled by the smallest size pillow remain, there’s no need for caulk, putty, or other conformable firestop products. Fire Barrier pillows have a 3-hour flame rating, and they’re super easy to replace after a fire – there’s no need to scrape charred material out if the penetration gap. Just pull out the spent pillows and pop in new ones whenever you need to.
Kidde Direct Plug-In Carbon Monoxide Detectors
According to the Journal of the American Medical Association, carbon monoxide is responsible for approximately 15,000 emergency room visists and roughly 500 deaths per year in the United States alone. I don’t know about you, but it seems to me that those figures shouldn’t be so high, considering how dangerous the average person knows carbon monoxide is. But as the old saying goes, “out of sight, out of mind.” Being that CO is invisible, scent-free and otherwise undetectable, many of us don’t give the possibility of carbon monoxide poisoning the thought that we should. In far too many cases, it takes a tragedy to make people realize just how dangerous this “silent killer” is.
Because most carbon monoxide-related fatalities occur overnight while the victims sleep, it’s incredibly important to install carbon monoxide detectors near bedrooms and other sleeping areas. While early warning signs of CO poisoning include tangible effects like nausea, headache, and flu-like symptoms, people who are asleep at onset are oftentimes completely unaware of them, and continue to sleep right through the more advanced stages of carbon monoxide exposure that lead to deep unconsciousness, convulsions, and finally heart and lung failure. You can greatly reduce your risk by ensuring that you’re awakened as soon as carbon monoxide begins infiltrating your home. Similar to smoke alarms, CO detectors sense dangerous levels of carbon monoxide in the air, and then sound an alarm that wakes a home’s occupants and warns them of danger well before the gas has a chance to take its toll.
It doesn’t matter if you live in a house, condo, or apartment building: all of these structures have the risk of accumulating carbon monoxide. Everything from mailfunctioning furnaces and fireplaces to gas stoves and vehicles running in garages can cause CO to build to unsafe levels. If you’re one of the lucky few who already have carbon monoxide detectors wired into key locations in your home, then you’re ready to go; as long as you’re properly maintaining the detectors, you should be well protected. But if you’ve hesitated to install a carbon monoxide alarm because of the installation factor, don’t put it off any longer. The Kidde Nighthawk Plug-In carbon monoxide detector has all the benefits of a conventional CO alarm, but plugs right into any wall outlet, so there aren’t any installation hassles: no hardwiring, no drilling holes for screws – just instant protection.
SpecSeal® SSP Putty
If you need to firestop smaller cable penetrations, construction gaps, or openings in electrical boxes but are tired of dealing with some of the messier caulks and foams out there, then I think you’re going to like today’s featured product. My attention was recently caught by SpecSeal® SSP Putty from STI, a clay-like firestopping agent that can be applied without tools or mess. Like I said, this putty is very malleable, just like clay, so all you need to do is work it into openings with your hands, instead of hauling out a caulk gun or trowel. Sounds nice and easy, right?
It is. But no-hassle installation is only one of the benefits of SpecSeal® putty. First of all, it has very strong adhesive properties, so it sticks really well to just about any type of building material, as well as pipes, conduit, and cable jackets. Next, it goes through a two-stage intumescence process when exposed to fire, meaning that it swells (to up to 8 times its original size) to create a gap-free barrier to block the passage of smoke, flame, water, and fumes. As a matter of fact, it’s even great at blocking noise, which makes it ideal for soundproofing as well.
If you’ve ever firestopped with caulk or foam, you’ve probably found that once it dries, that’s it. If you need to make any changes, you need to pull out all of the cured intumescent material, update your cabling and make any other necessary modifications, and then refill gaps with a fresh application of foam or caulk. But one of the really interesting features of SpecSeal® is that it never dries or hardens, so it’s reworkable at any time. This can save you money in the long run, because you don’t have to invest in new firestopping putty every time you need to update a cable configuration. And even though it doesn’t dry, it stays put, so you don’t have to worry about it falling or sagging out of place. In addition, there’s no “cure time,” so you don’t have to wait hours for it to become fully effective – it’s ready to go from the start.
SpecSeal® SSP Putty is rated for up to 3 hours of fire protection, per the requirements of ASTM E 119.
Flame Stopper
The old “stop, drop, and roll” routine and basic fire extinguisher skills are very useful, but if you’re trying to prevent flame and smoke from speading through wall penetrations, neither will do you much good. What you really need is an intumescent filler material like Abesco’s FP200 Fire-Rated Foam. This firestop-in-a-can fills in the gaps where cables or pipes pass through walls, ceilings, and floors, to maintain a tight seal that inhibits fire spread between rooms.
So how does it work? As I mentioned before, Abesco FP200 is intumescent, which means that it expands and forms a hard, impenetrable char when exposed to fire. This char has the ability to seal out flame, smoke, toxic fumes and water for up to 2 hours of fire exposure. The foam can be used to seal gaps in concrete, brick, wood, and metals like aluminum and steel, and its performance isn’t affected by humidity or moisture. As a matter of fact (and I think this is pretty fascinating), after application it actually cures (dries) upon being exposed to atmospheric humidity!
Abesco FP200 foam has been fire-rated according to the requirements of ASTM E-814 (UL 1479), contains no chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), and is environmentally friendly.