It might be the case that you already have fire doors installed, and are looking for a fresh look that compliments the rest of the building. Or you may have purchased new fire doors that are primed and ready to decorate. Whatever the case, preparing and painting your fire doors should be hassle-free.
Painting Fire Doors: How To Guide
One of the most fundamental features of fire resistance within a building is the use of fire doors. Fire doors are generally 10mm thicker than regular doors. Built from sturdy materials, they are respectively a lot heavier to withstand fires. The manufacturing of fire-resistant doors is regulated to FD standards. This determines the stability and integrity of all fire doors. FD30 and FD60 fire doors are most common. These titles describe the length of time in which the door can withstand roaring flames, which is 30 and 60 minutes respectively.
Whilst fire doors understandably vary from regular doors, the means in which they can be painted barely differ. There are certain regulations that you must adhere to, though with preparation and planning these can be upheld with ease.
Fire doors can be painted with regular paint. Wood and timber fire doors can be painted with paint or varnish, though it is advised not to paint them excessively, so be wary of the number of coats that may have been painted previously. Do not thicken the door any more than it needs to be.
It is important to be wary of any door hardware whilst painting. As per Fire Regulation Standards, it is imperative that hinges, handles and other hardware not be painted. Any hindrance to their performability will render them unsuitable for fire safety.
Given their unique manufacturing process and requirements, fire doors do not come in a huge variety of colours. It can be difficult to find a suitable door that complements the decor of a pre-existing building. Measures may need to be taken to bring them up to scratch with the style of the building.
Due to their particular attributes and regulations, it may seem unlikely that fire doors can be painted without prior fire safety knowledge. Though in reality, the answer is quite the contrary.
Can you paint fire door strips?
There is no evidence to suggest that painting over intumescent seals has any detrimental effect on the performance of the seals. In fact, it can actually be beneficial to paint over the strips to a certain extent. A layer of paint can help prevent the absorption of atmospheric moisture. There are limits, however as to how much you can overpaint an intumescent seal before they become inoperative and rendered useless. It is recommended that painting be limited to a maximum of five coats of conventional oil-bound paint or varnish.
Different types of fire doors come with different features that prevent smoke and fire. Intumescent strips are designed to expand in immense heat and prevent the flames from breaching past the frame.
Can you paint over smoke seals?
Their flexibility is required to function properly. Painting over these seals will reduce their effectiveness at containing smoke. If your smoke seal has already been painted over, then these will need to be replaced at the earliest opportunity.
Smoke seals are an important safety feature of fire doors that prevent the leakage of dangerous toxins from a burning room. Fitted around the edge of the door, these are made from loose fabric that is designed to compress or deflect the smoke.
Can you paint a wooden fire door?
As you would paint a regular door, painting a fire door is not much different. Having the correct paints and tools available will certainly aid you. As you would prepare and paint an internal wooden door, you should prepare similarly when painting a wooden fire door. Be sure to cover the hardware so as to not paint it.
An extra lick of paint can improve the appearance and it’s particularly important for wooden doors. If the weather has chipped any of the original coat, moisture can seep through the cracks and subsequently damage the substrate of the door.
Can you paint a metal fire door?
Metal fire doors come with their own properties and functions that must be catered to specifically. The materials used to manufacture metal fire doors may benefit from a coat of external paint. This will not only provide a sleek, professional look but also add a layer of protection from deterioration.
Though manufactured to withstand weathering, over time the metal can become faded, chipped and a little worse for wear on the eyes. Though the functionality remains the same, the way in which your building is perceived can be altered and a layer of paint will do the door a world of good.
Most metal fire doors are primed and ready to spray once they have been installed. Below is a step-by-step guide to painting your metal fire door.
What paint can I use on a fire door?
Regular paints and varnishes can be used to decorate fire doors. However, there are fire-rated paints available should you wish to use them.
What is fire rated paint?
Fire-rated paint is specifically designed to prevent the spread of fire over the painted surface by releasing a flame dampening gas once the paint becomes hot. Regulated by the British Safety Standards BS 476 , fire retardant paint can be used on both interior and exterior fire doors.
The lifespan of fire-resistant paint depends solely on the brand and its type. Some range from 12 – 15 months, others average at around 9 months before reapplication is required. Decorating Warehouse provides clear advice on how to apply fire resistant paint .
Oil Painting Medic
Painting fire presents challenges in what pigments and art techniques to use for its ethereal quality. In truth not all flames are merely red or yellow or appear solid. What are the best colours to capture a scene featuring a fire in art?
Problems with Painting Fire
The notion that fire is merely a bright colour can result in a childish depiction of flames in a painting. Bonfires, candlelight and a log fire will all appear different. The following painting practices can result in an unconvincing portrayal of fire.
| How to Paint Fire Rachel Shirley |
Reaching for any red or yellow colour to express the colour of flames, regardless of how it actually looks
Treating fire as a solid entity with opaque colours.
Giving harsh outlines to the fire, resulting in a cardboard cutout impression of fire
An insistence to make fire stand out within a daytime scene, even though the flames may not actually appear so bright in context, resulting in an overly garish impression of fire.
Using a red or orange colour that is actually darker in hue than the surrounding colours.
How to Paint Fire
Fire is not always red yellow or gold. Depending upon the nature of the fire, can be many colours. Consider the following when painting fire.
A lone candle flame will appear very different to a large bonfire. The former will often appear golden-yellow or burnished in hue; the latter a smouldering orange or crimson. The tones within will also shift in different ways.
Fire can often contain the most unlikely colours such as violet, blues, greens and even browns.
The size of the fire as well as the materials being burned will have an impact upon the appearance of the hues and the tonal shifts to be expressed. In other words, no one set of colours of art technique will fit every type of fire.
Tips on Painting Fire
Although nothing can replace honest observation, there are things the artist can do to avoid the pitfalls of painting fire, such as the following:
Remember to consider fire in context of its surrounding and lighting conditions. Because it is inherently bright, it will appear almost blinding in a darkened room, but almost indecipherable on a bright sunny day.
Fire will usually appear brightest at its core in that the lightest tones will be observed at its heart.
Flames are not merely attached to the object under combustion, but appear to hover slightly above it.
Fire will not exhibit harsh outlines, but ghostlike formations that appear to ‘fade’ abruptly on its outer reaches.
Cooler colours will often be apparent above or away from the heart of the flame, such as crimsons, blues or violets.
How to Photograph Fire
Fire can be a tricky subject matter to paint, rather like reflections or mist, which has little definite outlines and doesn’t adhere to the rules of solid objects. The following art techniques might help when painting fire.
As fire is constantly in flux, it might be best to work from photos. Take several to be sure of getting at least one good one. Try doing so in the dark, so the fire will be easier to see. Set the camera on fast setting to prevent blurring of the fire pictures. Take a light reading from the flame itself rather than the background or the fire will appear merely as a white smudge, revealing little of the detail within. Take separate light readings of the background if this is also vital to the painting. This means you will have 2 sets of photos: those of the fire and those of the background. The two can then be combined in the painting.
Art Techniques for Painting Fire
Rather than take photos of flames in isolation, place objects nearby to create some ambience. Objects with interesting contours will appear dramatic when placed near a candle in a darkened room. Examples might be a person’s face, a Roman bust or an ornament.
Use a similar colour palette on the candlelit object as for the flame itself. This will give the painting some coherence.
Bright colours on a white background will appear tarnished or dull, making it difficult to key in the tones of the flames. To counter this problem, apply a thin wash of a neutral colour over the art surface first, so that the bright colours will be immediately appreciated. Diluted acrylic paint will dry quicker. Such an underglaze is also known as an imprimatura and any colour can be used to set the mood.
Work on the background of the painting before the flames, working just up to (but not too close to) the outline of the flames. Working thinly around this area will prevent colour contamination when it comes to applying the bright, clean colours of the fire. Knit the two areas together with a clean soft brush once the dark colours and the bright colours have been applied. Use 2 separate art brushes for both tones to prevent continually cleaning the brushes to mix different colours.
Art Techniques for Painting Fire
Setting the scene for the fire is half the battle. A dramatically-lit object in a darkened room will help make the fire appear more convincing. Paint the shaded background area first and then the brightest colours last, which will be the highlights of the object and the flame itself. I use the following colours for painting fire (in order of prevalence): white, lemon yellow, cadmium yellow (pale) permanent rose, cadmium red, ultramarine, pthalo blue and burnt sienna. Useful others are: burnt umber, carmine red, alizarin crimson and viridian.
Observe the colour temperature of the fire (different to the actual temperature of the fire). A little cadmium yellow (pale) or burnt sienna will make the fire appear warm in hue. Adding a dab of crimson will cool the colour a little. Adding a little violet will cool it further, regardless of the tonality of the fire.
Look out for cooler colours on the outer reaches of the fire. Ultramarine, pthalo blue, permanent rose or burnt umber might be in order here.
Observe how the colour shifts in the fire. It might be white to cream-to-violet, with no orange to be seen, or it might be gold-to-blue.
Work the paint in the direction of the flames’ growth, i.e. upwards. Allow the paint to glide over the art surface to suggest the strands of the flames.
Oil Painting Techniques for Fire
Don’t end the colour abruptly. Blend a little of the flame colour into the background colour to reinforce the ghostly quality of the fire. Move a clean, dry brush upwards. If an unwanted colour stains the bristles use another clean brush.
Look at how the fire blends out into the background which might be different at various points of the fire. A smooth glow might be apparent in the centre, yet more defined structures can be seen on the outer reaches. Does the fire radiate straight upwards, or does it corkscrew?
Different elements and materials will generate different hues in the fire, some of which might be green, violet or bright blue.
Look out for sparks in the flame. Apply these last, dabbing the paint neat from a fine brush.
Fire in Art
Fire is not always easy to paint for its ghostly quality. Due to its constant flux, consider taking several photos to work from. Take light readings from both the flame and the background to garner 2 sets of photos that reveal elements of each. Applying a dark underglaze first will make adding a bright colour on top easier to key in tonally. Set the scene before painting the fire. Dispel idealised notions about fire such as it is always red or yellow. Some fires will display neither. Look at how the colours and the tones shift within. Move the paint in the direction of the flames’ growth and apply detail on the flames lastly in the painting. Remember to look at how the fire looks in context, as it will appear blinding in a darkened room, yet a similar tone to the surroundings within bright daylight.
Advice on Painting Bright Coloured Objects
Fumage: the art of painting with fire
Few painting techniques are as impressive as fumage or smoking. If using a pencil, a pen or a brush requires a certain mastery, fumage requires a higher level of skill. Today we present this technique, which was practiced by Salvador Dalí himself. From abstract allegories to realistic portraits, the forms obtained with fumage are a radical vindication of the ancestral and the natural.
What is fumage?
This is a pictorial technique that uses soot stains on paper as the basis of the work. This soot acts as pigment, which is born from the combustion of a flame located under the paper, which forces the artist to work face up or inclined in order to see and correct the outline of the flame.
For the development of this technique, the materials are basic and affordable. To generate the fire, the most common is to use a candle (it weighs little and it is easy to drive it), although it is also possible to use small blowtorches, lighters, carbides or even a cigarette.
Regarding the support, it can be thick paper (to prevent the flame from igniting), canvas, tinted paper, wood or plaster… In any case, the support must be fixed upside down, while the artist traces the drawing with the flame on the lower part. Subsequently, the support should be able to be moved to make the final details and finishes that the author considers, now, in a more comfortable position.
The surrealist origins of fumage
In the surrealism current of the 20th century, Wolfgang Paalen was one of the artists who claimed this technique, in order to connect with the most ancestral and natural part. Dalí also used it, under the name of sfumato. In his case, he used soot as a base for his oil paintings.
It should be noted that fumage is a technique that offers a background of chiaroscuro and tanned tones where the artist can later develop, with other paints and techniques, finer figures. In this way, the sinuous shapes with fire can be transformed into hyper-realistic elements in black and white, or combined with other oils or inks to trace elaborate details, always painted on the same support.
Sometimes, fire -that wild and uncontrollable element- traces unplanned shapes, small “accidents”. It is in these situations where the artist must creatively show mastery of technique. From these unexpected forms may emerge portraits, flowers, landscapes or metaphysical scenes inspired by a dream. The limit, once again, is set by the originality and skill of the author.
Today – and for some years now – one of the most renowned artists in the technique of fumage is Steven Punk, a true master of fire. His works are a delicate dialogue between flame, paper and brush. Here we share with you some of his impressive works, where you can see the combination of several techniques:
What do you think about fumage, did you know about this technique and would you dare to try it? Don’t forget to leave us your comment.
See you in the next post
