Fireproofing and Insulation
in Wisconsin
Commercial fireproofing and insulation across Wisconsin, self-performed. Milwaukee, Madison, Green Bay and Appleton on institutional, cold storage and manufacturing work, and Superior and Douglas County on the port, industrial and metal building work at the head of the lakes.
Fireproofing and insulation,
done properly in Wisconsin.
Bahl Fireproofing opened in 1977 as a fireproofing subcontractor in Central Texas. Registered with the Wisconsin Department of Financial Institutions and working here. Most of what we install is under confidentiality, so the projects we can name publicly are the ones on our projects page. What travels with the crew is the same install standard: the listed system at the specified thickness, readings taken and logged as we go, and a closeout package the special inspector can work from rather than argue with.
What that means on a Wisconsin bid is a real production rate instead of an optimistic one, the exclusions written down before the job starts, and an honest answer about the schedule. If we cannot hit your date, you hear it during the bid rather than the week it matters.
Five services across Wisconsin
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 Wisconsin.
Schools and universities, Hospitals and medical office, Data centersSee the service →
02Intumescent Fireproofing
Rated coatings for exposed steel, self-performed across Wisconsin.
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 Wisconsin.
Gyms and field houses, Natatoriums, Cafeterias and commonsSee the service →
04Spray Foam Insulation
Closed and open cell, commercial envelope, self-performed across Wisconsin.
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 Wisconsin.
Schools and gyms, Churches, Fire stationsSee the service →What we are usually fireproofing in Wisconsin
Food processing and cold storage
Wisconsin makes and stores food at industrial scale, and every one of those buildings is a vapor and thermal problem before it is anything else.
Manufacturing
Milwaukee and the Fox Valley build heavy manufacturing, paper and industrial plants with exposed steel and outage-driven schedules.
Schools and universities
District and university construction in Madison, Milwaukee and the regional centers.
Healthcare
Hospital and clinic construction across the southeast and west of the state, usually phased around an open building.
Where we work in Wisconsin
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 Wisconsin, ask, because we probably still bid it.
Milwaukee
Manufacturing, institutional and lakefront commercial construction.
Madison
State, university and healthcare construction on academic and legislative calendars.
Green Bay
Paper, food processing and cold storage, plus the institutional work around them.
Appleton
Fox Valley manufacturing and the distribution that serves it.
Superior
Douglas County and the head of the lakes, across the bridge from Duluth. Port, industrial and metal building work our Minnesota crews reach the same day.
Oshkosh
Aviation, heavy manufacturing and the campus work alongside it.
Kenosha
Distribution and fulfillment on the Illinois line, built for volume.
Eau Claire
Western Wisconsin healthcare, education and light industrial construction.
La Crosse
Mississippi River healthcare and higher education, on a bluff-country footprint.
Wausau
Central Wisconsin insurance, healthcare and wood-products industrial buildings.
One code, whole state.
You have no idea how rare that is.
DSPS runs it and that is the book. No reconciling a city adoption against a state amendment against some local ordinance nobody can produce a copy of. Bidding here is a straighter line than most places we work.
What the code situation actually is in Wisconsin
Wisconsin adopts a statewide Commercial Building Code, chapters SPS 361 through 366, administered by the Department of Safety and Professional Services. One code, one set of rules, statewide, which makes it one of the more predictable states in our territory to bid work in.
Climate Zones 6A and 7. Same reversal as Minnesota: the heat is leaving the building, so the vapor retarder sits on the warm side and a southern detail is wrong before it is installed.
How a Wisconsin job runs
Drawings in
Send the plans and the spec sections. We confirm the jurisdiction, the adopted edition and the local amendments in Wisconsin 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.
Wisconsin questions
Do you work all of Wisconsin or just the metros?
All of it. Milwaukee, Madison, Green Bay, Appleton, Superior and the rest of the state are regular work, and our own crews travel rather than a local sub carrying our name. If your project is somewhere else in Wisconsin, ask, because we probably still bid it.
How fast can you mobilize in Wisconsin?
Wisconsin is scheduled alongside our Minnesota work so the travel is not carrying the job. Superior and Douglas County sit across the bridge from Duluth, which makes the north end of the state the part we can reach soonest. Southern Wisconsin is a planned mobilization, so send the drawings early and we will give you a real date.
Which general contractors have you worked for in this region?
We work for the regional general contractors building southeastern and central Wisconsin, among others. We are prequalified with most of the regional GCs building here and we will complete a new prequal packet and return it with the bid.
Can you do the fireproofing and the insulation scope on the same Wisconsin job?
That is the point of using us. Fireproofing, intumescent, K-13, spray foam and Core-Fill are all self-performed, so one submittal package and one company covers the whole scope instead of four subs coordinating around each other on the same ceiling.
What does commercial fireproofing cost in Wisconsin?
It depends on the required rating, the steel sizes, the access and the schedule. Any contractor who gives you a per-square-foot number without seeing drawings is guessing. Send the plans and the spec sections and we will price the actual scope.
Whose code applies on a Wisconsin job?
Wisconsin adopts a statewide Commercial Building Code, chapters SPS 361 through 366, administered by the Department of Safety and Professional Services. One code, one set of rules, statewide, which makes it one of the more predictable states in our territory to bid work in.
Do you work in occupied buildings?
Regularly. Healthcare renovations, occupied campuses and phased retail. Containment, protection of finished work and coordination around the other trades are part of the scope, not an extra line.
Are you licensed and insured to work in Wisconsin?
Registered with the Wisconsin Department of Financial Institutions and working here. Most of what we install is under confidentiality, so the projects we can name publicly are the ones on our projects page. Business registration and trade licensing are two different things, and we confirm what Wisconsin and the local authority having jurisdiction require for the specific scope before we bid it rather than after. We carry commercial general liability, commercial auto, workers compensation and umbrella coverage, and certificates go out with the bid. Send your insurance requirements with the drawings.
From the Bahl library
Austin commercial fireproofing contractor
Read the guide →
IBC Table 601 fire resistance ratings
Read the guide →
SFRM special inspection: what IBC Chapter 17 requires
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→Bidding a Wisconsin project?
Call, email, or send the drawings through the form. All three land in the same place, and Ross reads them.