Should I Fit Ceiling Speaker Fire Hoods?

Whilst browsing for ceiling speakers you may now be aware of ceiling speaker fire hoods and you're wondering if these are essential?

We agree that it is a pretty boring purchase, after all it's hidden above the ceiling and forgotten about but unfortunately, it's a pretty important purchase.

What A Ceiling Speaker Fire Hood Does:

• Maintains the fire integrity of your ceiling in the event of a fire.
• Complies with building control.
• Acoustic hoods can decrease sound leakage above and improve sound below.

Firstly, your ceiling speaker itself is highly unlikely to catch fire.

That's not what the ceiling speaker fire hood is for.

If you were unfortunate enough to have a kitchen fire, your ceiling speaker will melt away in seconds leaving a large hole for the fire to instantly spread through to the bedrooms above putting yours and your families lives at risk reducing the time you have to escape.

When you fit a ceiling speaker fire hood, in the event of a fire, the speaker will melt away but the hole is then protected by the fire hood for up to an hour completely reducing the amount of time it takes for the fire to spread and thus giving you a better chance!

Take a look at this video from Firetopper displaying just how fast a fire can spread:

Building Control

Now you're wondering "Do I need ceiling speaker fire hoods for building control?" and the answer is "Yes"...

It's no different to a downlight, you'll need fire rated down lights or fire hoods on them to pass building control and ceiling speakers are no different.

You will likely be picked up on this and asked if fire hoods are fitted.

The general "rule of thumb" is that if there is a room above that fire can spread to then fire hoods are essential. If however there is nothing above (i.e flat roof extension) then ceiling speaker fire hoods are not as essential.

Best Ceiling Speaker Fire Hoods

You can go two ways with this, straightforward fire protection or you can have fire and acoustic where the fire hood is designed to decrease some of the sound leakage above, ideal for rooms that are underneath bedrooms etc.

We tend to recommend the Lithe Audio fire hoods mostly as they are well priced and do the job well, but here's your top ceiling speaker fire hood brands:

1. Lithe Audio Ceiling Speaker Fire Hoods
2. Firetopper Ceiling Speaker Fire Hoods
3. Hoody Ceiling Speaker Fire Hoods
4. Q Install Ceiling Speaker Fire Hoods

Hopefully now you can see the importance of ceiling speaker fire hoods, they are not an exciting purchase, and hopefully you'll never need them, but it'd be better knowing they're there, just in case.

Look out on our ceiling speakers product pages as we often have bundles with discounts on fire hoods when bought together.