Fire stopping in Custom House
Fire stopping for Custom House, from a contractor working since 2005. Fully insured, with a 12-month guarantee.
- Fire seals cut back for extra cables and never reinstated
- Penetration schedules that need working through
- Openings left by services added after handover
Need fire stopping in Custom House?
Photos, a specification or a quick description of the joints is enough to start a fixed quote.
Fire stopping for commercial buildings in Custom House
Every service that crosses a compartment wall or floor leaves an opening, and that opening needs sealing to hold back fire and smoke. Our job is fitting fire-rated and intumescent sealant at those service penetrations, and along linear gaps, where it is the specified product. Each seal follows the manufacturer’s tested detail. The enquiries we see most involve unsealed penetrations discovered above suspended ceilings and expanding foam used as fire stopping, across joints between fire-resisting walls and floors, pipe penetrations and small duct penetrations where the tested detail allows. Facilities teams, main contractors and managing agents in Custom House tend to want the same three things: a clear scope, tidy work and joints that don’t fail again.
Taller residential buildings in London may fall under the Building Safety Act’s higher-risk regime, where fire-stopping records get close attention. We install what the designer or fire engineer has specified, and if you need records of the work, tell us and we will confirm with the quote.
Building owners and contractors get the same cover: twelve months on the work we carried out. It doesn’t extend to damage, faults in the building or work by others, and we’re upfront about that.
- Location
- Custom House (E16, E13)
- Wider area
- Greater London
- Cover
- 12 months on every job
- Quotes
- Fixed quote, scope in writing
- Telephone
- 01277 525 020
- Last updated
- 3 November 2026
Different surfaces, different methods
Masonry and concrete
Many seals are made in blockwork, brickwork or concrete slabs. Dust and loose debris are cleared out of the opening, with backing added if the detail requires it.
Cables and cable bundles
Single cables and small bundles are often within a fire-rated sealant’s tested detail. Bundle size, cable type and the space between cables all matter.
Maintenance after handover
After handover, these steps help:
- Ask the designer to confirm details early on refits
- Keep general-purpose fillers away from compartment walls
- Record which product was used where
- Make fire stopping part of every scope that crosses a fire-resisting wall
After the work, brief anyone else working in the area that the openings are now sealed. Any seal cut back for a new service needs reinstating to its tested detail.
Specify fire stopping early on refits, not as an afterthought. The designer can then choose details that suit the services planned, and the work runs in step with the M&E.
Questions about Custom House
Can you work in a care home near Custom House with residents in?
Yes. We agree rooms and times with the manager and work a few areas at a time. Any site rules, from signing in to infection control, are agreed before we start.
Is a hospital such as Newham University Hospital somewhere you can work?
Yes, provided the work is planned with the site’s estates team. Before anything starts, the estates team agrees permits, inductions and infection-control measures with us.
Do you guarantee your work?
Yes. The 12-month guarantee covers our preparation and application, but not damage, misuse or other trades’ work.
Do you work in Custom House?
Yes. Sites across Custom House are covered.
Which standards are fire seals tested to?
In short, BS EN 1366-3 and 1366-4 are the fire tests and BS EN 13501-2 is how results are classified. EI 60 means integrity and insulation for 60 minutes in the tested arrangement; installing to the detail is what carries that across to site.
Is any job too small?
Small jobs are welcome alongside larger packages. Photos and a description are enough to start.
How long before the joints can be used?
We will confirm how long the chosen product needs to cure.
How a job runs
We bring the products specified for the job, along with primers and backing rod. Joint faces are cleaned back to sound, dry surfaces, the manufacturer’s primer is applied where it’s called for, and each bead is tooled to a neat concave finish. The ULEZ covers the whole of Greater London, and parking near a job is rarely simple. Let us know about any on-site parking or loading arrangements when you send the job details.
- The specification and schedule come first, so we know which details apply.
- We plan the sequence of floors, risers and voids with you.
- We compare every service penetration with its tested detail before sealing.
- Foam, ordinary sealant and debris come out.
- The specified backing and sealant go in to depth and are finished neatly.
- Anything outside the detail is reported to you rather than sealed.
Getting the site ready
- Agree which areas must stay open
- Arrange parking or a loading space
- Share your working hours and any access restrictions
Get a fixed quote
Send us photographs, drawings or a joint schedule and a fixed quote comes back to you. Where a site visit makes more sense, we’ll arrange one.
Read more
Leave it or put it right?
Leave a penetration open and smoke and fire can cross into the next compartment far earlier than intended. While the openings can be reached, sealing them is normally straightforward. Left until ceilings are closed or a tenant moves in, the same work costs more access and more disruption. Access in London is hard enough to arrange once, so while access is arranged it pays to renew all failing joints, not just the worst.
Small jobs and large programmes are priced from the same things: what’s in scope, how we reach it, what’s specified and when it needs doing. Call for a quote, and you will have a fixed figure to work with.
What you get with us
- CHAS accredited contractor
- One contact handling all your sites
- Commercial sealant work since 2005
- 12 months’ guarantee on every job
Read how commercial sealant jobs are priced and our accreditations.
Building owners, agents and FMs in Custom House
Hospitality, education, healthcare, office and retail clients book us directly too. The work is planned around how the building runs, so the building keeps working while we do.
If you look after buildings for someone else, clear figures and clear communication matter. You get a fixed quote, an agreed scope and a walk round at the end, plus a 12-month guarantee.
Where services cross fire walls in Custom House
A good number of hotels sit less than 2 miles from Custom House. Hotels are divided into compartments, and refurbishments that add pipes and cables through bedroom and corridor walls leave gaps to close. In London buildings, frequent fit-outs and M&E changes are a common reason fire stopping gets breached. Penetrations are sealed with the specified product, to its tested detail, under the building’s own permit rules.
For a site team at a college like Newham College London, which lies north of Custom House, fire-rated sealing is best scheduled after the summer works. Shop fits in centres such as Brocklebank Retail Park (1.2 miles south of Custom House) can bring new services through fire-resisting walls between units, which then need the specified seal. Hospital estates such as Newham University Hospital (to the north of Custom House) are divided into fire compartments, and any service penetration through them should be sealed to the specified, tested detail.
Custom House is about 1 mile south of Canning Town, in Greater London. Businesses, contractors and managing agents in Custom House can call on us for service penetrations. Custom House is one of 764 places we cover in Greater London.
Business premises anywhere in E16 and E13 are within our area. Buildings on Tree Road, Ethel Road and Booth Road are within our area. Custom House sits on or close to the A1020, useful when we plan access and materials. Just outside Custom House, we also work in West Silvertown (1 mile south-west), Silvertown (1 mile south), Canning Town (1 mile north), Royal Docks (1 mile east) and Limmo Peninsula (1 mile west). Further afield, our area takes in London (5 miles west), City of Westminster (8 miles west), Marylebone (8 miles west), Kensington (10 miles west), St Pancras (6 miles west) and Shoreditch (5 miles west).
Local landmarks in Custom House
We work on buildings around Thames Barrier Park, The Royal Docks Community School and Royal Docks Academy, among other places. There’s a railway station in Custom House itself: Custom House station. A little further out are Gallions Reach Shopping Park (2.2 miles east) and Charlton Athletic Museum (1.5 miles south). For a walk, there’s Gilbert's Pit and Tower Hill.
Site staff or a sealant specialist?
The visible bead is only part of the job. Correct depth, the right primer and a sealant matched to the movement are easy to get wrong without experience.
Some joints are best left to specialists: for instance fire-rated seals that must match a tested detail, trafficked floor joints and external movement joints. Getting these wrong usually costs more in the end than doing them right.