No other building type puts as much service through as many compartment walls as a data centre. Power, data, cooling and containment cross compartment lines continuously, and the crossings are not static — every rack deployment, every customer migration, every capacity upgrade adds cables to a penetration that was correctly sealed when it was first installed.
That creates a specific failure mode. The original seal was right. Then somebody pulled twenty more cables through it, because that was the route, and the seal is now a hole with cables in it. Nobody logged it. Nobody was asked to reinstate it. And the wall between the data hall and the plant space no longer does what the fire strategy says it does.
The answer is not stricter sealing. It is re-enterable sealing systems designed for exactly that cycle, plus a register that makes the reinstatement somebody's explicit job.
The regulations that bite in this sector
- Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 — the Responsible Person's duty over the premises.
- BS EN 1366-3 and BS EN 1366-4 — the tested performance of penetration seals and linear joint seals.
- BS 9999 or the building's specific fire engineering strategy, which in data centres is frequently bespoke.
- Client and colocation customer requirements, which are commonly stricter than statute and are audited more often.
- Building Safety Act 2022 — current, accurate information about fire safety measures.
What we typically find
- Original penetration seals defeated by later cable pulls and never reinstated.
- Non-re-enterable products used at penetrations that were always going to change, so the only way to add a cable is to destroy the seal.
- Containment and tray passing through compartment walls with the tray itself unsealed internally.
- Cooling pipework and ducting penetrations sealed for fire but not for the movement the service actually undergoes.
- Blank openings left for future capacity, unsealed.
- No asset-level record, so nobody can tell which penetrations were done under which specification.
Every asset plotted at its actual location — each pin opens the photographed record.
Working inside the constraints
Zero-downtime discipline — Hot works avoided by design where possible, permits taken seriously, and works scoped so that no seal is ever left open across a shift boundary.
Re-enterable by specification — We specify systems intended to be opened and reinstated at penetrations that will change, so the next cable pull has a compliant route rather than a destructive one.
Asset-level register — Every penetration QR-tagged and recorded, so a change request can reference the seal it affects and the reinstatement is traceable to the person who did it.
Certified under 05B — Installation under BM TRADA Q-Mark scheme 05B, to the tested detail for that substrate, service and aperture — not a generic seal.
Related work
Continuous-operation environments where the evidence taken at installation is the only evidence that will ever exist.
From enquiry to certification
Enquiry
Tell us about the building and the works you need.
Site survey
Every asset inspected, photographed and QR-tagged.
Specification
Clear scope and pricing against tested systems.
Certified works
Competency-assessed operatives under scheme control.
Evidence pack
Photos, registers and product data for every asset.
Certification
Q-Mark labelled, registered and traceable for life.
Tell us about the building.
A short conversation is usually enough for us to tell you what a survey or a package of works looks like and what it costs. Call 020 8769 8869.
Tell us about the site
Send us the details and anything you already have — drawings, an old survey or photos. We will be in touch within one working day.
- BM TRADA Q-Mark certified, certificate 4515
- Named Approved Persons accountable for the work
- Every asset photographed and recorded
Prefer to talk? Call 020 8769 8869 (Mon–Fri 07:30–17:30) or email fire@arcticltd.com.