Fire stopping in Rickmansworth
New cabling is the most common way a fire wall ends up with a hole in it.
Get a priceThink of the last time anyone ran a new cable in your building.
An electrician fitted extra sockets. A broadband firm pulled fibre through a riser. A CCTV installer put a camera at each end of a corridor.
Each of them drilled through something.
What gets left behind
A hole that is the right size for the cable, which is bigger than the cable.
Sometimes one cable through a hole made for ten.
Sometimes a hole drilled and no cable ever put through it.
None of that is anybody's fault in particular. It is how buildings get wired. The result is that a wall which was sealed when the building was handed over is not sealed now.
What we do about it
We survey the walls and risers the cabling passed through, and list every opening. See the compartmentation survey page.
Then our BM TRADA / FIRAS-certificated contractors fit seals. Cable penetrations are mostly done with coated batts and mastic. See penetration sealing.
Where cables are likely to be added again, we fit a seal that can be reopened, so the next person does not cut a fresh hole.
A habit worth starting
Ask anyone who works on cabling in your building to tell you before they drill through a wall or floor, and to tell you afterwards where they went through.
A short note will do. Then the opening gets sealed before it gets forgotten.
Rickmansworth and nearby
Three Rivers District Council has its offices in Rickmansworth. The fire and rescue service for Hertfordshire is Hertfordshire Fire and Rescue Service.
We travel from Luton, so a visit is planned as a day. If there are only two or three openings, we will tell you it is better to save them for a bigger visit.
Questions we get asked
Does a cable through a hole count as sealed?
No. The cable fills only part of the hole. The remaining space needs sealing with a tested product.
Who is responsible for sealing a hole an electrician drilled?
The person who cut the hole should have sealed it. If that was not done, the responsible person for the building is still the one who has to put it right.
Send us the postcode and a photo or two. We will tell you what it needs and give you a price.
Get a price