Health, Fire & Safety Issues

WOOD FINISHING AND FLAMMABILITY (BURN RATE)

Q.  How do wood finishings effect the burn rate of pinewood?

A.   I have never heard this one before, and so I will give you an educated guess.  Coating resins are organic, which means that they are comprised of carbon, much like wood itself, and they burn. The most flammable ingredients in wet solvent-borne coatings are the solvents (or thinners) that are used. The resins which form the solid portion of the coatings also burn, but not quite as quickly.

Once you have applied the coatings onto the wood and the solvents have completely evaporated, you are only concerned with the burn rate of the resins and other organic ingredients.

My guess, and remember this is only a guess, is that the wood burns faster than the resins. If you need a definite answer you might refer your question to the National Fire Protection Agency (NFPA) at www.nfpa.org.

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