Paint in new build

[AndyR]

Hi all, I'm new to the forum after discovering by accident. 

We're having a new extension put on our Primary School but the contractor is saying that we don't need fire resistant Paint in the communal areas (corridors, stairs etc) and that water based eggshell on new plaster is sufficient. Has anyone had experience of this?

 

Cheers

[Mike North]

The brick, paint and plaster will be sufficient fire resistance for the corridor, unless, the school starts hanging paper pictures along the length of corridor

[AnthonyB]

It depends on the paint, some normal water based paints don't lend themselves to surface spread of flame, others do hence the existence of fire retardant versions.

The designer and their incumbent fire engineer will have produced a design fire strategy which will identify the requirements for that area and the principle contractor needs to select a suitable product to meet that. If it's an escape corridor there may be a need to meet BS Class 0/Euro Class B performance - the fire strategy should dictate this.

Paint becomes more of an issue the more layers there were, if you were redecorating by painting over existing painted walls then this would be more of an issue than a couple of new layers on a plaster skim.