All commercial buildings constructed in the United States are built to a specific fire code. Hotels and motels must have one (1) hour rated fire doors for individual rooms. As an example, doors separating hall corridors may have to be rated at two (2) hours, ceilings are one (1) hour rated, which is achieved by overlapping drywall assemblies.
All commercial buildings have similar codes, which in part is based on building size, design and occupancy. In many cases, either the architect or builder will miss an item in the code, which requires a mechanism to fix the problem. The method is a “Fire Marshall Variance”. The Fire Marshall Variance is designed to allow for topically applied retardants or other methods, which can attempt to meet the intent of the written code. The Fire Marshall Variance can help the builder or architects fix the problem without having to tear out and replace the portion of construction, which does not meet the specifications.
After-market treatments, such as fire retardants, can actually exceed the intent of the code, in some cases. It is important to note, any retardant product needs to show a substantial amount of testing and have a history of being used to help inspectors in their final project approval.
There are a number of topically applied after-market fire retardants manufactured in the United States, which have been used to help organizations meet the intent of the codes. Nochar’s Fire Preventer is one such product.