Crown Paints will be on hand at CIH Housing 2014 to highlight to specifiers how they can meet their duty of care responsibilities to reduce the risk of fire spread in buildings.

Multiple layers of conventional paint can create a flammable surface on walls and ceilings if they have built-up over many years.
However Crown Trade Timonox Flame Retardant Coatings - when applied on the walls and ceilings of corridors, stairwells and other communal areas that form part of a circulation area or fire escape route in social housing properties - can help provide additional time for a building to be safely evacuated.

The coating works by limiting the oxygen around the flames through the release of non-combustible gases, and by using a formulation that provides a barrier to the flammable paint layers beneath. David Spicer, Specification Product Manager, said: “Fire spreads rapidly across walls and ceilings, using paint - either solvent or water borne - as its fuel. However, Crown Trade Timonox actually arrests and extinguishes flame spread – helping buy time for evacuation in a fire. The system can reinstate a wall or ceiling surface to Class 0, yet it is applied like ordinary paint.”

Crown Trade’s latest video, ‘The Right Paint For The Job,’ also includes footage of a burn test, which compares Timonox against conventional paint. Timonox video