Fire Compartmentation Survey

A fire compartmentation survey is an all-encompassing inspection to ensure your structural passive fire protection is working effectively and is legally compliant. The 2005 Fire Safety Order states fire protection components in a building must be “subject to a suitable system of maintenance”.

As third party accredited fire safety experts, we’re here to clarify the regulations around fire compartmentation and its maintenance. Our aim is to save lives, protect property and ensure you’re compliant with the law.

What is a Fire Compartmentation Survey?

A fire compartmentation survey assesses your existing fire compartmentation measures. It looks at the subdivision of your building into smaller compartments. The purpose of doing this is to prevent the spread of flames, smoke and toxic gases in the event of a fire, giving occupants time to evacuate to safety and preserving the structural integrity of a building.

Suitably maintaining your fire protection measures is required by law, so a survey is necessary to identify any required remedial or maintenance works. We ensure appropriate fire compartmentation exists and is suitable for its surroundings.

Sometimes, you may be advised you need a more in-depth survey following a fire risk assessment (FRA), refurbishment or for due diligence when looking to purchase a building. In these instances, we’d recommend a fire compartmentation survey to look at passive fire protection strategies and compliance in more detail.

What’s Involved in a Fire Compartmentation Survey?

As compartmentation exists at a structural level, people often worry a compartmentation survey is destructive or invasive. In reality, most surveys are non-invasive and don’t cause any disruption to day-to-day operations. In some circumstances, a more invasive survey is required, but this is something we’d discuss with you.

At Adaston, we offer fire compartmentation surveys for new and existing measures. They generally consist of:

Assessing or defining the strategy for the building.
A visual inspection of existing measures, including those in roof voids, floors, walls, risers etc.
A comprehensive inspection of fire doors, ensuring they meet the required British Standards and adhere to building regulations. We offer separate fire door surveys where necessary.
A transparent and simple action plan detailing any suggested remedial works.

Our team now use tablets and advanced technology to undertake a fire compartmentation survey, which allows them to upload building plans and strategies (where available). By having an online record, it’s much easier to manage maintenance and remedial works, helping you stay compliant with the Fire Safety Order 2005.

We understand the need for discretionary surveys and offer bespoke services for each client.

Our Process

Planning

Scope of works and deliverables agreed • Full fire strategy of the building provided by the client • Deadlines and timetable agreed, including any out of hours work required

Implementation

Work as agreed in the scope is coordinated and performed • This will be delivered by our in house firestopping team accredited by FIRAS and cleared and insured

Completion

Finalise and issue our tailored report detailing findings from the scope of works • Adaston advise on next steps if required and provide continued support

What Happens After a Compartmentation Survey?

We produce a comprehensive report detailing our findings from the fire compartmentation survey. An Adaston report typically includes:

An executive summary of our findings and recommendations
Building compliance comments relating to relevant legislation and British standards
Photographic evidence of all non-compliant installations inspected, with comments on the issue identified
Specific pin locations on a detailed site drawing for each and every issue
Recommendations for required remedial action and improvements
A full spreadsheet schedule detailing all findings for ease of pricing remedial works

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