Good morning. I have two side by side steele beam in an opening which I have recently exposed. There is a gap between the two at the bottom. My thoughts, to comply with fire regs can , fire board using in piece to expand over the two beams to allow them to be fire retardant, and paint whole exposed beam in a fire retardant paint in order to give that exposed steele beam effect. Thank you regards James
Generally it is OK to box in steelwork with fire rated board instead of using an intumescent paint however in this instance it sounds as though there will be a combination of exposed steel and the fire board. We would advise discussing with your building inspector to check they are OK with the proposal before purchasing any paint.