Lings Bar Hospital - Full Roof Space Fire Compartmentation Replacement

LOCATION: Nottingham, East Midlands 

SECTOR: Healthcare / NHS Building: 72-bed In-patient Unit  

ACCREDATATION: FIRAS Certified

We were awarded a four-month contract to completely replace the fire compartmentation within the labyrinthine roof-spaces of Lings Bar Hospital in Nottingham - a 72-bed in-patient unit specialising in rehabilitation, memory, and mental health services.

The Challenge

The hospital's single-storey, brick-built wings are covered by a series of interconnecting tiled roofs at differing heights, creating a complex and maze-like roof-space spanning multiple wards, consulting rooms, and offices. Years of accidental damage, combined with revisions to fire regulations, meant that the existing stone wool barriers and fire-stopping across the different roof areas no longer offered compliance and required completely replacing.

We were appointed based on our past relationship with the main contractor and the comprehensive nature of the solution we proposed.

Our Approach

Our six-man team worked across the third quarter of the year to design and install a fully compliant compartmentation system across 16 distinct zones - each requiring project-specific details to suit the varying geometry of the roof-spaces. We installed 650m² of FIREFLY® Zeus Lite 90:30 vertical barrier and a further 490m² of Zeus Horizontal 60:30 horizontal protection atop the new walls, with FB180 Ablative Batts mechanically fixed to the soffit to form protected zones extending 1,500mm either side of each wall. Batts were sealed with intumescent mastic and finished with a brush-applied ablative coating.

We also installed 10 FIREFLY® FR120 Access Panels - each measuring 900 x 600mm and offering 120 minutes fire resistance - to provide compliant ongoing maintenance access to the upgraded compartments. Fire dampers supplied by FIREFLY® were installed in compliance with the manufacturer's fully tested details.

The Result

All 16 compartmentation zones were completed within the four-month programme and the entire project is certified under our FIRAS scheme accreditation. Full compliance has been restored across all roof-space areas, with protected zones installed to current standards throughout the building.

As our Contracts Manager Daniel Oldacre noted: "Shortcomings with the original installations and repeated damage meant the compartmentation required completely redoing. It was really quite a complex job with different roof areas branching off like a maze - but the work went quite smoothly and the whole job is certified under our FIRAS scheme accreditation."