Life Safety and Fire System Consulting
There’s nothing more important than preserving the lives and health of people while at the same time minimizing physical damage to properties when disaster strikes.
Maintaining life safety in a building or structure can be extremely difficult, especially if you are not aware of current building and fire codes. There are so many rules and regulations which property owners are required to comply with, and frequently, building engineers and/or maintenance personnel simply do not have the proper knowledge or experience to know exactly what is necessary or required in maintaining life safety in a building.
That’s where FSCP comes in….
FSCP staff has the experience and expertise to assist property owners, engineers and maintenance personal by providing life safety fire system code council. We will assess and evaluate each building and research all fixed life safety equipment and develop code complaint in-house inspection testing and maintenance reports. FSCP will also provide employee specific training in proper procedures in maintaining fixed life safety and fire protection equipment or "systems" for in-house repairs and maintenance reducing the need for outsourcing.
We can help you utilize all the most common and recognizable life safety equipment including fire sprinklers, fire alarms, fire pumps, fire hydrants, special hazard type systems and emergency generators — as well as additional life safety equipment such as emergency lighting, smoke and fire dampers, smoke control equipment, fire rating separations, protection of shafts, sequence of equipment operations, stair access, magnetic door holders, locks, and others just to name a few.
This is critical, as oftentimes this type of equipment is not normally maintained due to lack of understanding or because your personnel may not fully understand this equipment or existing conditions.
Hidden Costs
Fire system installations and renovations have hidden costs in which the property owner are usually not aware. Without code-confirming research, calculations and preliminary acceptance with the authority having jurisdiction, fire system contractors can take advantage of you, and routinely have the edge in creating costly field change orders to the investor. As a rule, field change orders are not submitted competitively, and often are are marked up more than 60 percent! Unfortunately, you may not realize these hidden costs exist until your way into the project, and by then, it may be too late.
The most cost-effective ways to force fire system contractors to be competitive and reduce the possibility of costly field change orders is to provide them with an accurate "Scope of Work.” It is very important to alert your architect if additional funds are necessary in preventing this problem from happening. The costs involved in preventing costly field change orders will be worth your weight in gold. FSCP will work alongside your architect and provide them with onsite support. We will also continue working with you and your architect during the entire project including periodic field inspections to insure quality assurance.
FSCP additionally provides third party fire system acceptance testing for Washington, DC (DCRA) and Prince George's County, Maryland.
Our Life Safey Services:
- Providing building code life safety consulting services by developing in-house life safety awareness programs and training on-site personnel in proper procedures in maintaining installed fire systems reducing the need for outsourcing.
- Creating fire system onsite record books, evacuation plans, emergency plans, life safety plans, fire watch procedures, fire drill procedures and developing a fire system impairment program.
- Develop tenant construction site specific scopes of work for fire system modifications to eliminate costly field change orders and protect the integrity of the installed fire systems.
REMEMBER....
NEVER take advice from anyone who will financially gain from it. We appreciate the opportunity to assist you.