Be careful about fire and tiki huts. They are a glowing mixture. Yes. When you install a natural thatched roof, your hotel, restaurant, or resort will be at higher risk of fire. If you don’t apply an effective thatch fire sealant on tiki huts, once the fire starts on dry palm thatch, the spread of flame will be fast, making it difficult to extinguish. So, today, we’ll teach you how to fireproof a thatched roof.

How to Fireproof a Thatched Roof: Taking Fire Protection a Step Further

Thatched roofs are always at risk of fire. So, to comply with local building regulations, fire protection, and insurance purposes, we’ll teach you how to fireproof a thatched roof. We recommend two effective thatch fire retardants & sealants that you can apply to your tiki huts.

To build genuine tiki huts,  use cypress log frames, and the palm thatch as the roofing material. So, being wood and dry palm thatch naturally combustible, it’s hard not to worry about your tiki bars, poolside tiki huts, restaurant tiki huts, or any other thatched property from catching fire.

Some primary causes that increase the risk of fire in your thatched building are faulty electrical wiring, sparks from fire pits, bonfires, discarded cigarettes, and any other type of sparks of fire.

So, if you’re planning to build a fire pit near your tiki bar, you have to be careful.

We advise building all fire pits at least 15 to 20 feet away from your tiki bar, tiki umbrella, or any other thatched feature.

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Without further ado, here we’ll recommend two fire retardant products to increase your palm thatch fire safety.

Apply Magma TAS Firestop Sprays

Applying a thatch fire retardant spray on your tiki is one of the common ways to improve fire protection in your resort.

You must treat your wood frame with fire retardant products. Also, if the roof material is natural, it’s imperative to make it fire-resistant. As an expert tiki hut builder, we recommend using the Magma TAS Firestop sprays.

Magma Firestop® is a proven and effective flame retardant for thatch, wood, and other organic materials. There are two types of sprays, indoor and outdoor use.

Use the indoor spray on the internal surface of the thatch and the supporting cypress log frame, and use the outdoor spray over the exposed roof surface.

To protect your thatched building from catching fire fast, using thatch fire retardant sprays is your best solution. Also, many international institutions have tested it. So, Magma Firestop® retardant for thatch has the best rating to stop the spread of flame on the thatched roof space.

As a trusted tiki hut builder, we recommended this spray for your tiki hut. Besides doing a great job as a fire retardant, it also works well as a water repellent.

This fire retardant spray is non-toxic, biodegradable, odorless, and doesn’t affect other materials in any way.

While the fire protection may last for up to ten years, we recommend testing the roof every five years. It’s only in this fashion that you can assess the degree of fire protection, and you must respray when necessary.

Use Flame Safe Thatch Safe Fire Retardant

It is one of the most popular fire retardant coatings for thatching.

It comes in big economic presentations of 1 gallon and 5 gallons. Thatch Safe Fire Retardant is a water-based product that doesn’t contain asbestos, color dyes, or toxic chemicals.

This fire thatch sealant is colorless, but it indeed has a pungent odor. The great thing about applying transparent fire retardant coatings is that you won’t have to worry about your tiki hut roof losing its natural color. We recommend applying three coats to make your thatch fire safe.

Before application, materials and surfaces should be cleaned and dried to ensure maximum coverage and effectiveness.

You can cover a roof area from 150 sq. ft to 200 sq. ft per gallon. So, make sure to buy the right amount of sealant to fireproof your roof. You can apply this fire retardant with a paintbrush, roller, or sprayer.

Since tiki huts are combustible, all tiki hut builders must include thatch fire safety in their building process. Otherwise, they’ll put people’s lives at risk and break the local building codes.

Dipping Palm Fronds in Thatch Safe Fire Retardant

Another great way to fireproof a tiki hut is by dipping the individual palm fronds, thatching, bamboo, cypress logs, and other wooden/organic material in the retardant liquid.

When applying the fire retardant, you should not expose the treated area to moisture for the first 24 hours. Also, you need to leave the pre-treated piece of thatch to dry several days before beginning building your hut.

Following these recommendations, you’ll guarantee the fire protection of your tiki before beginning its construction.

Please take a look here to learn more about how we address tiki hut building and the vast benefits our tiki huts can offer to your resort, restaurant, or business.

Also, keep in mind that there will always be the risk of fire in a beachfront resort, hotel, restaurant, tiki bar, or any other thatched property. So, we advise you to always keep on top of your thatch fire safety. You can do this by reapplying three coats of fire retardant every couple of years.

Fire Retardants Prevent Mold and Make Thatch Last Longer 

Besides increasing thatch fire safety, fire retardants provide long-term protection against mold.

If you live in Florida’s humid climate but still want to have a nice-looking tiki hut, we recommend buying a fire-rated thatch sealant to prevent mold. Remember that it’s better to avoid fungal growth than to deal with it.

By locking out moisture, a thatch fire sealant will decrease the risk of damage due to humidity, inhibiting fungal growth. Furthermore, applying a thatch fire sealant will extend the lifespan of your tiki hut roof for approximately two years.

This varnish coating helps to keep the appearance of thatch materials. Since the coat is transparent, a fire retardant preserves the natural, earthy look of the thatch. So, by spraying or applying the fire sealer on both sides of the thatch, it gives you the best of both worlds. Your tiki hut will look great, and it will last longer.

Don’t Forget to Install Smoke Alarms

No matter what your roof material, you should always be ready to prevent it from catching fire.

It would be best to have a smoke alarm system in your tiki huts, tiki umbrellas, chickee huts, etc.

So, we advise you to hire a trusted electrician to install adequate smoke alarms to increase your thatch fire safety.

Remember that any thatched building without smoke alarms is a danger to your vacation locale.

We want to reduce the risk of a fire starting in the first place. But just for the worst-case scenario, make sure to keep a suitable fire extinguisher to suppress fire when it has begun.

We recommend buying one fire extinguisher per thatched property. In that way, you avoid any fire from taking hold and the spread of flame through the roof space.

Keep Your Business Safe with Fire Retardant Thatch!

Your priority as a business owner or resort manager should be to create a safe tropical paradise for your guests.

You can protect your resort, restaurant, bar, umbrella, poolside tiki hut, or amusement park using fire-rated thatch.

So, make sure to use the fire retardant on thatch roofing and panels of:

• Your exterior dining area(s)
• Huts and chickees
• Pool areas and outdoor spas
• Themed parks

Now that you know how to fireproof a thatched roof, you won’t have to worry about your vacation locale catching fire.

So, go ahead and put our advice into action for a safer tropical paradise.

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