Your anti-fire paint guide: Does fire-retardant paint work?

House fires are among those dangers you can protect yourself from. If you were to peruse the statistics, you’d see how many people die or get injured in fires yearly. It’s not to mention multi-million property damage involved. Could they have gotten off lightly? Well, perhaps, if they knew that fire-retardant paint does work.

Not only is this paint safe for your belongings, but it can also be life-saving. Here’s why it’s a good idea to add to the fire protection of your property and minimize potential losses with fire-retardant paint.

Getting into the basics: How does fire-retardant paint work?

Whether you want to protect wooden furniture, doors, ceilings, walls, or other structures, fire-retardant paint is the right thing to use. You can apply it to a wide range of surfaces, bringing a protective coating on top of them. Usually, it’s available in a rainbow of colors, so it won’t be a big deal to pick the paint that looks nice with what you apply it to.

But how does fire-retardant paint work? At first glance, it isn’t that much different from decorative paint. The difference is that this good-looking paint can’t prevent fire from worsening for up to two hours.

You’ve got it right: fire-retardant paint can give you 120 more minutes for managing an emergency or leaving the building. It’s very sensitive to high temperatures. That means when the fire breaks out, so does the gas contained in this paint to curb its spreading.

With this in mind, fire-retardant paint does work for two hours and ensures extra safety by:

• allowing you to extinguish the fire before it’s everywhere
• protecting surfaces from getting ablaze
• improving visibility in the area by minimizing smoke

Applying fire-retardant paint on ceilings and walls is the best way to curb fire spreading indoors. It can also be helpful for kitchens, living rooms with fireplaces, or any other place that can be a potential fire hazard.

The differences between fire-resistant and fire-retardant paint

Do you still believe there’s only one fire-fighting type of paint? Whether you call it fire-resistant or retardant, you may be talking about the same thing. However, that’s far from the case. Even though both paint types are protective and helpful when the fire breaks out, they work differently.

The differences between fire-resistant and fire-retardant paint lie deep in their composition. The former’s got its name chemically and doesn’t allow the fire to affect the surface it’s applied to, creating a protective foam layer in an emergency. That’s why it’s used for metal constructions like gas pipes to prevent a disaster.

Fire-retardant paint is specifically processed with additives to slow fire spreading or even stop small-scale fires. The coating made of this paint is suitable for apartments and wooden surfaces.

The bottom line

Bad things happen. Usually, they appear out of nowhere, bringing the destructive power that leaves us helpless. Even though you are unlikely to foresee and avoid all disasters and emergencies, it’s up to you to take care of some precautions beforehand.

From now on, you know when it makes sense to take advantage of fire-retardant paint. Remember, a danger foreseen is half avoided!

7.02.2022