Building Surveys
Independent Fire Inspections Ltd offer full and comprehensive building surveys.
How a building is managed and maintained is crucial to maintaining the buildings fire strategy throughout its lifetime. Day to day wear and tear, maintenance works and general remedial works can interfere, damage or disturb the passive fire protection installed as part of the buildings construction.
Not maintaining the passive fire protection within the building will impact on the integrity of the building and its ability to perform as it should do within a fire.
A regular inspection and maintenance routine should be in place for all buildings, to ensure that passive fire protection remains effective, in the form of Fire Risk Assessments:
A fire risk assessment is a review undertaken of a building in order to assess its fire risk and offer recommendations to make the building safer. A building’s ‘responsible person’ must ensure they appoint a competent person to complete a fire risk assessment.
The Fire Risk Assessment must be reviewed on a regular basis. It is recommended that the following be included in the review:
Every 12 months after the original assessment is done.
Every 5 years a new assessment should be conducted.
If the building’s purpose has substantially changed.
If the building structure has changed.
There are four types of Fire Risk Assessment, Type 1, Type 2, Type 3 and Type 4. Independent Fire Inspections Ltd can assist you with each of these options, with Type 4 Fire Risk Assessments being the most comprehensive. They include destructive sampling, but in both the common parts of a building and living areas – such as apartments and flats. Type 4 FRAs are comprehensive, and can be complicated to complete. This is because access to individual dwellings is required, and destructive sampling can lead to a need for repairs.
In addition to Fire Risk Assessments being completed at regular intervals, we recommend that any remedial works and upgrades are inspected as and when they happen, to ensure that all re-instatements are correct, and in line with the manufacturers specification, thus maintaining the integrity of the building.
It is also recommended that all fire doorsets are inspected every six months, to ensure that they continue to function correctly. Fire doors and surrounds are often subject to damage which would affect the way they perform in the event of a fire, it is therefore crucial to ensure that they continue to perform to their designed standards, in line with the buildings fire strategy.
Need a passive fire inspection? Contact one of our trained experts and we will be in touch to help
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