Your facility’s fire protection strategy plays a critical role in life safety, asset preservation and insurance liability. A correctly specified passive fire system can buy occupants and emergency teams the minutes they need — and prevent a contained incident from becoming a catastrophe.
Specifying fire retardant coatings can feel daunting, but it doesn’t have to be. By following a handful of grounded, field-tested principles, project managers, specifiers and EPCs can put together a robust passive fire scope that performs in the real world — not just on paper.
Start with the substrate, not the brochure
“The right specification begins with the substrate, the exposure class and the required fire-resistance rating — never with the product brochure.”
The most common cause of premature coating failure is a mismatch between the product chosen and the surface it’s applied to. Steel, timber, masonry and thatch each demand a different approach. Always confirm:
- The substrate condition, including moisture content, profile and existing finishes.
- The required fire-resistance rating in minutes (e.g. 30, 60, 90, 120) for each protected element.
- Exposure conditions: internal, semi-exposed, fully external, marine or chemically aggressive environments.
- Compatible primers and topcoats — the warranty is only valid as a complete system.
- SANS, ASTM or BS-EN test reports that match your application, not generic claims.
Plan inspection points before the first stroke
“The right specification begins with the substrate, the exposure class and the required fire-resistance rating — never Dry film thickness checks, batch traceability and ambient condition logs are the difference between a system that performs and one that quietly fails. Build these checkpoints into the program before mobilisation.
A short joint pre-start meeting — including the applicator, fire engineer and Micon representative — typically removes 80% of avoidable delays once site work begins.with the product brochure.”
Document for handover, not just compliance
The job isn’t finished when the topcoat dries. Owners and insurers increasingly request a passive fire dossier covering product certifications, applied DFTs, batch numbers and warranty terms. Compiling this as you go — rather than reconstructing it at handover — is one of the easiest wins on any project.
Working with a manufacturer that supports both the specification and the close-out paperwork removes a meaningful amount of risk from your scope. That’s where Micon’s technical team adds the most value: from the first concept brief through to the final QA pack.