Firestopping in data centres is one of the most technically demanding areas of passive fire protection in any building type in Ireland. Every cable, pipe, and duct that passes through a fire-rated wall or floor slab creates a penetration that must be sealed to a tested and certified standard.
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Your Data Centre Probably Has Firestopping Breaches. No One Has Told You Because No One Has Looked.
The difficulty with firestopping failures is that they are invisible under normal operating conditions. The fire compartment only shows itself when a fire tests it. That is exactly the wrong moment to find out it does not hold.
Most data centre operators assume their facility is compliant because it passed a fire safety inspection at handover. That certificate reflects the building as it was built. It does not reflect the building as it is now. Every upgrade, every new cable route, every rack relocation that crossed a fire-rated boundary since that certificate was issued has created a compliance obligation. Whether those obligations were managed or ignored is a different question entirely, and one that only a structured survey can answer.
Yes. Irish Building Regulations Part B requires that every penetration through a fire-resisting element is sealed in a way that restores the original fire resistance rating. Data centres, by their nature, have a volume and complexity of service penetrations that makes this a specialist undertaking.
A standard commercial building might have a handful of penetrations through fire-rated compartments. A live data centre has a fundamentally different profile, one that changes continuously as infrastructure evolves.
Without a dedicated survey, there is no reliable way to know whether that profile is compliant or not.
A survey begins with a systematic inspection of every fire-rated boundary in your facility: walls, floor slabs, ceiling voids, service risers. Each penetration is assessed against its documented specification, or against the appropriate tested system for that configuration where no documentation exists. The output is a written schedule of findings with photographic evidence. It identifies every compliant seal, every non-compliant seal, and every penetration with no documented record.
That schedule forms the basis of a costed remediation programme. Works are carried out using systems tested and assessed for the specific cable configurations, loads, and penetration types present in your building. We work in live operational environments and coordinate directly with your infrastructure and facilities teams throughout. The facility keeps running.
Passive fire protection (PFP) refers to building systems and materials that contain the spread of fire and smoke without requiring manual operation. Unlike active systems such as sprinklers, PFP works through the building’s own structure — compartmentation, firestopping, fire-resistant doors, and structural fire protection — slowing the spread of fire and protecting escape routes.
Firestopping is the process of sealing openings and penetrations in fire-rated walls and floors — anywhere that cables, pipes, ducts, or other services pass through a compartment boundary. Without proper sealing, these penetrations become pathways through which fire and smoke can spread rapidly. Firestopping uses approved materials and systems to restore the fire resistance rating.
Yes. Firestoppers works across both commercial and residential building types. We have experience with office buildings, hotels, retail units, apartment blocks, housing developments, student accommodation, healthcare facilities, education buildings, and industrial premises. Each building type has its own fire safety challenges and we tailor our approach accordingly.
Yes. We offer passive fire protection surveys and fire safety audits as standalone services or as part of a wider remediation programme. Our audit service involves a detailed assessment identifying deficiencies and providing a clear, prioritised report to support remediation planning and compliance obligations.
We operate across all of Ireland. While we have a strong presence in Dublin and the greater Leinster area, we regularly work on projects in Cork, Galway, Limerick, Waterford, and throughout all regions. If you have a project anywhere in Ireland, please get in touch.
Yes. Remediation is a significant part of our work. We assist building owners, property managers, and developers with identifying passive fire protection deficiencies and planning and executing remediation programmes. We can also provide interim measures while longer-term works are planned and procured.
You can request a quote right now using the form on this page, or by calling or emailing us directly. We aim to respond to all enquiries within 24 hours. For straightforward requests we may provide a preliminary cost indication very quickly. For complex projects, an initial site visit may be recommended before preparing a detailed quotation.
All of our products come with full certification, showing exactly what has been done and what dates it needs to be reviewed.
Get a quote today to protect your steel structure or warehouse.
Get a quote today to protect your steel structure or warehouse.
