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We believe that knowledge is best when it's shared! Here, we would like to share part of our knowledge in Mechanical Engineering, Fire Engineering, Passive Fire Protection, height safety, and forensic investigation. We also encourage you to share this information with others and keep the conversation active.
Our goal is to contribute to the community safety and improve the industry standards. As such, we also invite you to contact us if any of the articles could be improved or if there is any specific issue you would like us to write about.
Fire Doors: Repair or Replace?
A common problem building owners are facing currently is legacy defective or noncompliant fire doors in existing buildings. In some relatively minor situations, for example, when the fire door hardware is removed, leaving damage on the fire door, the only "Standard solution" is to replace the entire doorset, resulting in unplanned costs of thousands (sometimes hundreds of thousands) of dollars for building owners. Is this the best approach?. Are there no fire door repairs? A
Danilo Macedo
Feb 165 min read
Fire Door Inspections: General Requirements overview
As explained in our previous post about fire door tags, a common problem building owners are currently facing is legacy, defective, or noncompliant fire doors in existing buildings. This post provides a general overview of common building defects and the standards used to inspect doors.
Danilo Macedo
Feb 27 min read
Fire Door Tags: Why is it a problem?
To start, even the building code dates back to 1992, and as for the tags, they were only introduced in 1988 with NZS 4232 & NZSS 1188. This requirement was later solidified in AS/NZS 1905.14:1997, which was superseded by NZS 4520:2010. The problems of door tags (or lack of) continue until today generating millions of dollars in cost that are not always necessary.
Danilo Macedo
Jan 316 min read
Passive Fire Protection in existing buildings
Risk based, practical and collaborative methodology for remedying passive fire defects. This methodology includes working with the Building
Danilo Macedo
May 23, 20253 min read
Planning your Passive Fire Protection Inspections
from our Director and Senior Fire Engineer - Rob Holland Some tips for IQPs and Building owners to effectively prioritise your regular Passive Fire Protection inspections In an earlier Passive Fire Protection LinkedIN post, I raised a question: How is it that buildings subject to annual BWOF inspections can continue to have massive, life threatening passive fire Protection issues? From the many buildings I've inspected in my career as a fire engineer, it has become evident to
Rob Holland
Apr 30, 20244 min read
Passive Fire Protection Qualifications in New Zealand
Formal Passive Fire Protection qualifications available that are recognised by NZQA
Danilo Macedo
Apr 9, 20244 min read
Passive Fire Protection: How to find the fire separations?
In my last Passive Fire Protection LinkedIN post, I raised a question: How is it that buildings subject to annual BWOF inspections can continue to have massive, life threatening passive fire Protection issues? Well, after talking to a lot of IQPs over the last several months about the challenges they face in this area, I was a little shocked to learn that commonly they turn up to a building and just don’t know where all the fire separations are and so don't know where they sh
Rob Holland
Mar 22, 20243 min read
Passive Fire Protection Installers - How do you choose one?
Unfortunately, in New Zealand, Passive Fire Protection is still not a licensed profession nor a well-established trade and anyone can open a company and proclaim themselves to be a passive fire installer without any qualification or experience. Therefore, a common question we get from clients is "Do you have a Passive Fire Protection Installation company to recommend?". Although we have dealt with many different installation companies, each type of job may require a different
Danilo Macedo
Jan 31, 20245 min read
Passive Fire Protection Products: Where to find them?
There are numerous manufacturers of Passive Fire Products worldwide, however, not all of them are available in New Zealand, and even...
Danilo Macedo
Nov 23, 20236 min read
Passive Fire Protection Training for Property Managers
To answer many Property Manager questions, we created a FREE training session, "Passive Fire Protection for Property Managers"
Danilo Macedo
Jul 24, 20232 min read
YES, you CAN use Pink Foam in your Passive Fire Project!
But we usually don't recommend it. Continue reading to understand the real issue with Fire-rated foams, when you can use them, and why....
Danilo Macedo
Jul 7, 20233 min read
Flood restoration: Do I need consent or a Fire Engineer?
Understanding the need for Consent of a flood-damaged building.
Rob Holland
Apr 26, 20234 min read
Fire Engineering: Fire Growth
Size of the Fire Before we discuss fire growth, it is important to understand how we define the size of a fire. Combustion generates...
Danilo Macedo
Apr 18, 20237 min read
Fire Engineering: Understanding Fire Protection
Principles of Fire Science For eons, humans have been familiar with fire, and most of us still use it daily, perhaps our familiarity...
Danilo Macedo
Apr 18, 20233 min read
Fire Engineering: Heat and its consequences during Fire
Heat exposure is one of the tenability criteria assessed during a fire design, given the many adverse affects it can have on the human...
Danilo Macedo
Apr 18, 20233 min read
Fire Engineering: Class of Fire and Fire Extinguishers
Class of Fires: As explained in another article , a fire can be extinguished by breaking the fire triangle (smothering, starving or...
Danilo Macedo
Apr 18, 20236 min read
What is a Passive Fire Consultant?
A Passive Fire Protection Consultant, also called a Passive Fire Engineer or a Passive Fire Specialist, is a person that holds an extended amount of knowledge regarding Passive Fire Solutions and systems and their requirements. An independent Passive Fire Consultant provides the best advice to the client without conflicting interests such as representing a particular manufacturer of products. Further, a Chartered Passive Fire Professional Engineer is an experienced engineer w
Danilo Macedo
Mar 14, 20234 min read
Fire Safety Design: What Are Smoke Separations?
The basic principle behind passive fire protection is compartmentation. This compartmentation is mainly achieved through fire...
Danilo Macedo
Feb 10, 20234 min read
Fire Engineering: Smoke Properties and Intoxication
Smoke Development As the old saying goes: Where there’s smoke, there’s fire! In our case, as our focus is the study of fire, we could...
Danilo Macedo
Feb 10, 20234 min read
New Zealand Construction Legislation
According to the Cambridge dictionary, compliance means: · “The act of obeying an order, rule, or request”. · “The fact of obeying a particular law or rule, or of acting according to an agreement”. We hear and deal with compliance daily, and most people understand that to be compliant means that you are following the law by achieving specific requirements. But which law? And specifically for the construction industry, how is the legislation structured? The Building Act 2004
Danilo Macedo
Feb 10, 20233 min read
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