The Passive Protection Installer

Actualizado a fecha: 2 December, 2018

In this post we would like to discuss about the Passive Protection products installer, as well as the regulations in this sector and the need to modify it or not.

We remind you that Passive Protection “has the mission of saving lives by maintaining the fire resistance of the structure, maintaining the sectorization of fires and achieving a proper evacuation of smoke in case of fire”. Anyone can perform a Passive Protection product installation, it is only necessary to request the “Classification Report” and test of the product you have purchased and sometimes an “Installation Certificate” which is a sheet for the installer to state that he has performed the installation according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

This lack of professionalism in the sector has been the perfect breeding ground for the proliferation of companies and self-employed with little or no knowledge on the subject, who try to earn money always at the expense of the quality. And the worst of all is that often with the favor of the own construction company that has taken the work with a reckless low and try not to lose money at the expense of subcontractors.

It is also true that there are great professionals in the sector, who struggle every day to raise awareness about the importance of their work and complain about this unprofessional intrusion, but the lack of regulation and the price war we are in, often makes their work fall on deaf ears.

For all these reasons we believe that a greater regulation for the Passive Protection Installer is necessary, which will benefit both the professional and the user of the installation with a better safety in case of fire. It can be regulated in several ways:

– Registration by the administration of Passive Protection companies accredited with the signature of a Technician. It looks incredible, but nowadays, in order to perform a pneumatic installation of a compressor of 100 lt you need to be registered in industry, but there is no registration for companies that guarantee the resistance to fire of a bearing structure in a building. This registry should be national, not as it happens in the Canary Islands, which is obligatory, but not for installers coming from the rest of the country.

– Verification by an External Quality Company that the Passive Protection system has been correctly installed and complies with what is specified in the project. This is being applied from a few years ago in Catalonia and Zaragoza resulting in a higher quality. It has a small economic cost but it is invaluable and the security benefits are very large.

– Obligation of a Civil Liability insurance to the installer that would limit the intrusion of an installer who is not a profesional in the sector.

These measures individually or collectively, would greatly guarantee the quality of Passive Protection products installation giving to the user the security of being able to safely evacuate the building in case of fire and protecting the property, as the current normative marks. Let us hope that the Administration will hear us one day as it is the only organ with the capacity to regulate it correctly.