Handbook of Principles and Practices for the Application of Spray Applied Fire Resistive Materials

About the Book

This text targets all stakeholders of fire safety regardless of position. Building Owners, Designers, Contractors, Building Officials and Inspectors will find this text, crucial to the fulfillment of their professional obligations.

The book dedicates Chapters to the history, the how’s, what’s and why’s of spray applied fire resistant materials providing a foundation to resolve fireproofing issues. Chapters are also dedicated to understanding controversial issues that affect our industry such as beam size, thermal restraint, beam substitution, and thickness calculations.

The majority of the text is dedicated to the many details of specifying, applying, and inspecting spray applied fireproofing. When does a beam act like a column? What UL test applies to a truss versus a joist? These and many more questions are addressed over nearly 200 pages.

The last three chapters focus on putting this knowledge to practical use in the field. Chapter 23 emphasizes the economic analysis or saving money. The available resources for fire safety must be efficiently distributed to get the best bang for the dollar spent. Chapter 27 targets the construction schedule. Any application must be as expedient as possible without incurring added OT costs or sacrificing compliance, always a challenge

Over the years application efficiency has dropped, installed costs have risen, and yet compliance remains troublesome. People just do not have the time or the knowledge to put it all together, which is the focus of the final Chapter 28. The text is concluded with a 200-word glossary.

About the Author

The author, Mr. Tim Vellrath is a Professional Engineer, inventor, entrepreneur, and the owner of businesses that apply and install Passive Fire Protection, mainly fireproofing. For more than 30 years Mr. Vellrath has encountered countless of situations that had to be addressed. At times these situations had to be confronted, at times engineered details were required, but at all times the issue had to be resolved so progress could continue.

With a career firmly established as an applicator, Mr. Vellrath took these issues a step further, not only to comply with them, but also to understand them from an engineering perspective. Engineering diligence, combined with the lessons learned through the hard knock practicality of construction have been recorded and presented in the Principles and Practices of Spray Applied Fire Resistive Materials.

These compilations, 30 years in the field and nearly 5000 hours of research, have formed the bases for professional presentations in New York, Washington DC, New Jersey, and throughout the State of Connecticut. For the 1st time the essence of these presentations are available in a printed format.