Problem with fire proofing

[Paul Lunnon]

Hi all

Have enjoyed reading your posts here in the UK. I have made some double sided ply faced flats. These in turn were treated with a flame proofing product called Flamebar. I painted over this with a very good black emulsion paint (Flints black). I tested a piece and the paint did not degrade the fireproofing at all. So proceeded to paint the flats on drying it would appear the flame proofing is leaching thru the paint giving it a very poor finish. Has anybody got any suggestions? Should I have left the flats longer to dry after proofing and before painting?

Many thanks

Paul

[EvanWRapp]

I’ve no experience with that particular product, however, the flame retardants I’ve used have no rhyme or reason to their finicky nature.

Sorry I don’t have anything really useful to say other than perhaps try a different paint or a flame retardant additive that can be mixed directly into the Paint.

[Paul Lunnon]

Thanks for your reply. The information I got from the paint supplier was as follows. The flame retardant tends to form crystals on the surface of the substrate that has been treated , in your case, plywood. Applying a water based emulsion tends to bring these crystals to the surface, which will be very apparent with a black emulsion as in your case.

My suggestion is to give the plywood additional coats of black emulsion, if possible, allowing 12 hours between coats. This will stop the crystals leaching through and will solve your problem.

So it looks as if I might have been a bit heavy handed with the fire proofing and will have to add more layers of paint.

Paul (UK)

[Former Member Content Archive]

I don’t want to be picky but….. there is no such thing as “fire proofing”. It’s “flame retarding” because the product retards the flame spread time. Some products are intumescent, which means they bubble up and extinguish the flame. The words “fire proofing” shouldn’t be in a scenic artist’s vocabulary. It can get you in big trouble legally.

[Paul Lunnon]

Oh dear my choice of English seems to have failed. You are so right. When asked here in the UK have you fireproofed the scenery it means have you applied flame retardant. I totally concur flame retardant does not make items fire proofed. Many thanks for your input.

Paul

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