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Passive Fire Stopping

Sentinel Projects seals the gaps and penetrations that let fire and smoke spread between compartments, across schools, hospitals and commercial buildings in Northampton, Cambridge, Oxford, London and the rest of the UK. A compliant fire door in a breached wall still fails. We make sure the whole compartment holds. We are FireQual-qualified and BlueSky-certified.

Book a fire stopping survey Call 01604 000 000

The door is only as good as the wall around it

A fire door is one part of a fire-resisting compartment. If the wall it sits in has an unsealed cable tray, a pipe penetration or a gap above the ceiling, fire and smoke pass through the gap and the door has done nothing.

Passive fire stopping seals those routes so the compartment performs as a whole. It is one of the most common failures in older buildings, and one of the least visible, because most breaches sit above ceilings and inside risers where nobody looks until a fire risk assessment flags them.

What we seal

  • Service penetrations, including pipes, cables and ducts
  • Gaps and voids around fire door frames
  • Cable trays and busbars passing through compartment lines
  • Linear gaps between walls, floors and ceilings
  • Riser and ceiling void breaches

We use tested and certified fire stopping systems, matched to the substrate and the fire rating the compartment needs to hold.

Why compartmentation matters

Building fire strategies rely on compartmentation to contain a fire long enough for people to leave and for the fire service to respond. In hospitals, that principle underpins progressive horizontal evacuation, where patients move to the next compartment rather than out of the building.

A single unsealed penetration can defeat the whole strategy. The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 requires the Responsible Person to keep general fire precautions, including compartmentation, in effective order.

Who we work for

Schools and colleges.

Fire stopping in holidays and out-of-hours.

See schools

Hospitals and healthcare.

Sealing works in live wards, supporting compartment-based evacuation.

See healthcare

Facilities management.

A surveyed and prioritised fire stopping programme across sites.

See FM

HMOs and residential.

Compartment sealing for licensing and fire risk assessment.

See HMOs

How it works

Book a fire stopping survey

Survey

We inspect compartment lines, risers and voids for breaches.

Report

You get a breach schedule and a quote.

Works

We seal with certified systems, around your schedule.

Certification

You get documentation for each sealed penetration.

Common questions

It is the sealing of gaps and penetrations in fire-resisting walls and floors, so fire and smoke cannot pass between compartments. It works alongside fire doors to keep a compartment intact.

A fire door in a wall with an unsealed penetration still lets fire through the gap. The door and the wall have to perform together.

Yes. Each sealed penetration comes with documentation for your fire safety file.

Yes. The survey gives you a full breach schedule and price before any work is booked.

Book a fire stopping survey

Make sure the whole compartment holds, not just the door.

Call 01604 000 000