Intumescent paint

[ReallyRatherNerdy]

So we need to paint the exposed beams in our new extension with intumescent paint. I phoned a paint supplier who said that building control will either ask for a certified decorator to do it, or the supplier can provide a certificate and we apply it ourselves to keep building control happy. DH has been attempting to speak to building control all week to no avail. He even got a voicemail message saying that the building control man doesn't pick up voicemail and left a message anyway. No answer.

So please lovely mumsnutters can we paint our own beams or not?

p.s. FWIW we're in Scotland.

Hi, we had beams put in recently as part of an attic conversion. My joiner ordered the intumescent paint from a specialist supplier and I assume it was the joiner who painted the beams as there was never any mention of anyone else doing it.

We are getting things signed off with the council at the moment and they requested the certificate for the paint.

My joinery passed on a certificate emailed to him by the paint supplier. I had a look and it was just a "manufactures" certificate which I guess is just to prove the paint you bought from them is to the correct safety standard.

This is all I sent through to the council and that was satisfactory for them. There was nothing to say when/ if/ by who it was applied. The council did do a site visit and possibly checked then to see that the beam had been painted, I am not sure what they all looked at during the visit.

So I can't see any problem with painting it yourself. It certainly would have been OK in my case. (SBC Scotland).

You can absolutely paint it yourself. The key is to find out what regulation it needs to adhere to (I think this is normally down to how long it needs to resist fire for), and you can order from a specialist supplier. It tends to come as a two-tin job - one is the intumescent base coat and one is whatever colour you want to add to it over the top (but the key is it can't just be any paint, has to come from the same supplier to work). You can then pay an extra tenner or so for them to send you a certificate to wave at the building regs people. The certificate is produced once you've sent them the receipt and barcode info.

We did all this then building regs didn't even check 😂 just wafted in and looked at various other things.

Just to add, you need to base it on whether the beams have been pre-treated with anything too (the rust paint, or whatever it is some steels come coated in). I think we used Rawlins.

Thank you blue and rouge! Very much hoping for a wafty building regs person!

Did you use a brush or a roller? I've seen on youtube that it's very gloopy...

God yes it is very gloopy, I'd forgotten. I used a brush because quite frankly I was doing it to pass building regs before we put it on the market and just wasn't bothered how it looked at the time. Having said that I don't think the brush marks are really visible but we did overcoat with a graphite colour so that could be why..