Intumescent fire retardant paint used to protect Samfundet School in Norway.
Ecological products such as timber are at the heart of many Norwegian educational establishments. This beautiful natural resource serves to enhance many of the nation’s schools, colleges, universities, and public buildings. An important benefit of these natural wooden structures is that they offer students an ecologically sustainable, relaxed, warm and friendly location in which to study in. Protection of wooden structures from the elements is a crucial aspect to ensure longevity, and any unprotected timber structure exposed to the elements will not last long in Norwegian winters. The Samfundet School protection project was undertaken by architect Ole Jorgen Dolva. The school shown above has used good quality spruce internally, treated with Norsk Trepleie whitewash and timber white to stabilise the colour and brightness of the wood and should maintain the intended honey-stained colour for years to come. However, protection from the risk of fire is just as important, as many schools are becoming aware of the dangers that fire can pose to students and the extra cost of fire damage to the school buildings. With ever more accidental or malicious fires affecting Norwegian schools, prevention is playing a priority role for these establishments. Samfundet School in Oftenes and Ole Jorgen Dolva are very conscious of the need to protect the students from the risk of fire so, to find a solution to this problem, they contacted fire consultant Rolf Leo Waage Nilsen of Biokjemi Norge AS. He supplied Envirograf® Product 92 ES/VFR fire retardant wood coating, which has been very successfully used to protect many famous properties worldwide. Two coats of Envirograf® ES/VFR water-based fire retardant coating was used on the school’s timber. In this application, it was sprayed on, but it can be applied by brush or roller and offers excellent fire retardant qualities to BS 476 Parts 6/7 (1989) Class 0 & Class 1 spread of flame. The work was carried out by Contractor John Anderson and supervised by Project Manager Kjell Nevland.
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