Starbucks Cafe, 18th & Castro, San Francisco, CA
Problem: Wood joists and wood sub-floor required a 2 hour rating. The heat ducts, wiring and plumbing where in place as was the T-Bar ceiling. The cost to remove and re-install the ceiling tile system, ducting, wiring and plumbing to accommodate two layers of gypsum would have cost in the range of $150,000
Solution: Approved by the City of San Francisco. Ff88 was applied to all wood ceiling
joists and sub-floor areas to provide the required 2 hour rating. A coating of Ff88, in
matching color was applied to the ceiling to meet the fire rating required by the City.
The work was completed in four working days and at a greatly reduced cost and less
disruption.
Live Oak Auditorium, Morgan Hill, CA
Approved by the City of Morgan Hill and the California State Department of School Architecture (DSA).
Traditional Solution: The traditional method of an additional 2 layers of fire rated gypsum wallboard would add 4 pounds per square foot of mass suspended over 20 feet above the existing auditorium and subjected the existing shear values to non-code compliant stress. Use of the traditional method would require costly upgrades to existing columns and footings as well as removal and reinstallation of existing utility lines.
Solution: Firefree 88 was applied to the existing wood roof sheathing, the
supporting purlins and the structural wood glue-laminated beams to provide the 1 hour rating.
The cost and time savings realized by the use of Firefree 88
brought the budget into consideration and resulted in the project being completed and it is currently serving the students and community of Morgan Hill.
Walt Disney Museum, The Presidio San Francisco, CA
The new Walt Disney museum was being constructed within a historical building within the Presidio in San Francisco. The museum wanted to preserve the existing wood ceilings and leave them exposed to retain the character of the existing building. The ceilings were to be finished with specific colors in keeping with the time period of the building.
Problem: The exposed existing wood joist and wood sub-floor were required to meet a 1 hour fire rating. The only solution proposed by the City of San Francisco was to install 2 layers of gypsum board, which would not meet the intent of historical preservation wanted by the Disney Corporation.
Solution: Approved by the City of San Francisco. Ff88 was applied to all wood ceiling joists and sub-floor areas to provide the required 1 hour rating resulting in a savings of 30% compared to the alternate solution.
More importantly, the
building maintained the historical heritage by simply painting.
VA Palo Alto Hospital For The Blind, Menlo Park, CA
While in the process of construction it was determined that the original contractor had constructed a defective roof assembly. The roof was designed and constructed to encompass 6 modular medical office building modules. The constructed roof assembly did not meet the 1 hour fire requirements and a search for solutions that would not require demolition and reconstruction was instigated by Collins and Associates, a fire safety engineering firm of Ventura, CA.
Traditional Solution: Remove, store and reinstall all of the previously installed HVAC units, ductwork and overhead utilities. Demolish the existing roof structure, redesign and reconstruct. This would create a delay and unreasonable costs in providing the facilities for the hospital’s services benefiting the Veterans Administration.
Solution: Firefree 88 was proposed and accepted to be applied to the underside of the existing roof sheathing and
roof structure.
This process was completed in less than 4 weeks and did not extend nor delay the original construction
time frame.
Case Studies Source: Firefree.com
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Sprinkler system failure is not a hypothetical. It is a documented, recurring event across commercial and industrial facilities in the United States — and it is almost always absent from a facility's passive fire protection planning.
Mechanical failure, frozen pipes, inadequate water pressure, and maintenance gaps mean sprinklers fail more often than facility managers expect. When they do, there is no secondary structural defense — unless FireFree® is already applied.
Deliberately set fires using accelerants can overwhelm suppression systems within seconds. FireFree®'s certified coating is engineered to hold structural integrity for two hours under exactly these conditions — giving your team, your assets, and emergency services the time they need.
Large-scale facilities, high-rack storage, and dense inventory create fire loads that standard sprinkler systems were never designed to handle alone. When a fire spreads faster than suppression can contain it, your structure becomes the last line between a serious incident and a total loss.
