Fireproofing and Insulation
in Arkansas
Commercial fireproofing and insulation across Arkansas, opening 2027. Little Rock, Northwest Arkansas, Fort Smith and Jonesboro, on institutional, distribution and manufacturing construction.
A Arkansas bid, priced on
the edition your jurisdiction actually adopted.
Bahl Fireproofing opened in 1977 as a fireproofing subcontractor in Central Texas and has stayed in the trade since. We self-perform spray-applied fireproofing, intumescent coatings, K-13, spray foam and Core-Fill on our own crews and our own equipment across six states today, and Arkansas is next.
This page is not a placeholder. The adopted code edition, the effective date and the climate zone below are the same research we do before pricing any job, and they are the reason our number holds after award. If you are building in Arkansas and want a subcontractor lined up before the licence clears, send the drawings now.
Five services across Arkansas
One subcontractor, one submittal package, one company answering for the fire protection and insulation scope on your job.
01Spray-Applied Fireproofing
SFRM for beams, columns, joists and deck, self-performed across Arkansas.
Schools and universities, Hospitals and medical office, Data centersSee the service →02Intumescent Fireproofing
Rated coatings for exposed steel, self-performed across Arkansas.
Lobbies and atriums, Arena and stadium concourses, Airport terminalsSee the service →
03K-13 Sprayed Fiber Insulation
Thermal and acoustic in one pass, self-performed across Arkansas.
Gyms and field houses, Natatoriums, Cafeterias and commonsSee the service →
04Spray Foam Insulation
Closed and open cell, commercial envelope, self-performed across Arkansas.
Backyard shops and barns, Barndominiums and garages, Homes and additionsSee the service →
05Core-Fill Masonry Insulation
Foam-in-place for CMU cores, self-performed across Arkansas.
Schools and gyms, Churches, Fire stationsSee the service →Where we work in Arkansas
Our crews travel out of Round Rock to the job. These are the markets we are in most weeks. If your project is somewhere else in Arkansas, ask, because we probably still bid it.
Little Rock
State facilities, healthcare and the central distribution corridor. Zone 3A.
Northwest Arkansas
Bentonville, Rogers, Springdale and Fayetteville, the fastest-building corner of the state and the only part of it in Zone 4A.
Fort Smith
Manufacturing and river-corridor industrial on the Oklahoma line.
Jonesboro
Agricultural-industrial, cold storage and university construction in the northeast.
Conway
Higher education and the suburban school construction north of Little Rock.
Hot Springs
Hospitality, healthcare and municipal work.
What the code situation actually is in Arkansas
The Arkansas Fire Prevention Code 2021 Edition, Volume II Building, is based on the 2021 IBC and is statewide and mandatory under the State Fire Marshal. Local jurisdictions may adopt only the AFPC, and may make it more stringent but never looser, so the building side is genuinely consistent across the state. Energy is where Arkansas is different: the state is still on the 2009 IECC. That is the oldest energy code anywhere in our territory and it changes the insulation specification against every 2021 IECC state around it.
Zones 3A and 4A. Zone 4A is twelve northern counties, Benton and Washington among them, which is Bentonville, Rogers, Springdale and Fayetteville. The other sixty three counties are 3A.
What it takes to work in Arkansas
We put this in writing because a subcontractor who is vague about their standing in a state is a subcontractor you have to check up on.
Commercial licence, Arkansas Contractors Licensing Board. Arkansas requires a commercial licence at $50,000 of contract value and up. The board publishes classification names without scope text, so we are carrying more than one rather than assuming coverage: Fireproofing, Insulation, Ceilings and Acoustical Treatments, and Special Coatings. There is no spray foam classification in Arkansas; Insulation is the carrier.
Licensing in progress with the Contractors Licensing Board. We open in 2027. Until then we are reading drawings, pricing scope and building the schedule so the first Arkansas job runs like the hundredth.
The listed system at the specified thickness, readings logged as we go, and a closeout package the special inspector can work from. That standard travels with the crew, and it is the same one running in Texas since 1977.
The building code is one book here.
The energy code is from 2009.
Arkansas runs the Fire Prevention Code statewide, so your rated assemblies price the same in Jonesboro as in Little Rock. Then you get to the envelope and the state is still on the 2009 IECC while everyone around it moved on. If somebody hands you a 2021 IECC detail from Missouri, it is not the same spec.
How a Arkansas job will run
Drawings in
Send the plans and the spec sections. We confirm the jurisdiction, the adopted edition and the local amendments in Arkansas before we price anything.
Bid out
A real number with the exclusions in writing, plus your prequal packet filled out and returned with it.
Submittals
Product data, listed designs and thickness schedules, packaged once for whichever of the five services you handed us.
Mobilize
Crews on the date we committed to, with the headcount the production rate assumed.
Install and log
Readings taken as we go, not reconstructed later, and other trades sequenced around instead of blocked.
Closeout
Thickness maps, batch records and daily reports handed over as one package.
Arkansas questions
Are you working in Arkansas now?
Not yet. Licensing in progress with the Contractors Licensing Board. We open in 2027. We are pricing work that bids into that window, and we will tell you plainly if a date does not work rather than take the job and miss it.
Which code edition applies in Arkansas?
The Arkansas Fire Prevention Code 2021 Edition, Volume II Building, is based on the 2021 IBC and is statewide and mandatory under the State Fire Marshal. Local jurisdictions may adopt only the AFPC, and may make it more stringent but never looser, so the building side is genuinely consistent across the state. Energy is where Arkansas is different: the state is still on the 2009 IECC. That is the oldest energy code anywhere in our territory and it changes the insulation specification against every 2021 IECC state around it.
What climate zone is Arkansas?
Zones 3A and 4A. Zone 4A is twelve northern counties, Benton and Washington among them, which is Bentonville, Rogers, Springdale and Fayetteville. The other sixty three counties are 3A.
What licence or registration does Arkansas require?
Commercial licence, Arkansas Contractors Licensing Board. Arkansas requires a commercial licence at $50,000 of contract value and up. The board publishes classification names without scope text, so we are carrying more than one rather than assuming coverage: Fireproofing, Insulation, Ceilings and Acoustical Treatments, and Special Coatings. There is no spray foam classification in Arkansas; Insulation is the carrier.
Can I get a number from you before you open?
Yes, for work that bids into 2027 and later. Send the drawings and the spec sections. What we will not do is promise you a mobilization date we cannot stand behind.
Do you sub the work out in a new state?
No. Our own crews and our own equipment travel. That is the whole point of the way this company is built, and it is why the install standard does not change at a state line.
What states do you work in?
Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Arizona, Minnesota and Wisconsin, out of Round Rock, Texas. We travel for the right project and we are prequalified with national and regional general contractors across the territory.
Are you prequalified, bonded and insured?
Yes. We carry commercial general liability, auto, workers compensation and umbrella coverage, and we go through GC prequalification regularly. Send us your prequal packet and insurance requirements with the bid documents and we will return them completed.
From the Bahl library
IBC Table 601 fire resistance ratings
Read the guide →
SFRM special inspection: what IBC Chapter 17 requires
Read the guide →
How to specify intumescent fireproofing
Read the guide →
Commercial fireproofing cost per square foot
Read the guide →This page describes Bahl Fireproofing's scope of work and general code context. Requirements, adopted code editions and inspection procedures vary by jurisdiction and project; confirm them with your licensed architect or engineer and the authority having jurisdiction. Nothing here is a warranty of a building's compliance or a substitute for the approved construction documents.
The rest of the territory
Six states. How each one adopts code is the part that changes, so each state page starts there.
Every city adopts its own edition of the IBC here, so we confirm the one your jurisdiction runs, amendments included, before the number goes in.
Austin, Round Rock, Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston and more
Fourteen Texas markets, and the code in each→Code is adopted at the state level through the Uniform Building Code Commission, so one adoption governs Tulsa and the Panhandle alike. The state amendments are where the differences live.
Oklahoma City, Tulsa, Norman, Broken Arrow and more
The statewide adoption, and our Oklahoma markets→Home-rule cities set their own edition, so the building code changes at the city limit. The fire code does not: the State Fire Marshal adopts that statewide.
Wichita, Overland Park, Olathe, Kansas City metro and more
City code, statewide fire code, Kansas coverage→No statewide building code, so Phoenix, Tucson and Flagstaff are three separate conversations. Licensing runs the other way, statewide through the Registrar of Contractors, and we hold it.
Phoenix, Tucson, Mesa, Chandler and more
The ROC licence, and how Arizona code splits→One State Building Code sets the standard in every city, township and county, so the edition does not change at the city limit the way it does in Texas or Kansas.
Minneapolis, St. Paul, Rochester, Duluth and more
One state code, Twin Cities to Duluth→A single statewide Commercial Building Code, chapters SPS 361 through 366, administered by DSPS. One code, one set of rules, and one of the more predictable states to bid in.
Milwaukee, Madison, Green Bay, Appleton and more
SPS 361 to 366, and our Wisconsin markets→Building in Arkansas?
Call, email, or send the drawings through the form. All three land in the same place, and Ross reads them.