Inspection and testing schedule

stephen1974 · Post by **stephen1974** » Mon Aug 05, 2019 1:32 am

I'm pretty happy with the inspecting and testing schedule I use for fire safety but I do see different schedules from different soruces, including regs, bs standards, fire service, local authorities, fire service providers and I appreciate that in places of greater risk there may by increased schedules but i'm interested in what other people do as a comparison for what i've seen advised.

Call Points - Weekly (everyone agrees on this)
Fire fighting Equipment - Weekly to Quarterly (plus the yearly and 5 yearly)
Fire doors - weekly to 6 monthly
Fire Exits - Weekly or monthly
Emergency Lights - Monthly and 6 Monthly or Monthly and Yearly or Monthly and 3 years

The fire fighting equipment at quarterly was the one that caught my eye as this was from a fire service.

ScottD · Post by **ScottD** » Mon Aug 05, 2019 7:22 am

Morning Stephen,

My schedule is the following:
Control Panel inspection - Daily
Call points - weekly
FFE - Monthly inspection by me, annual by service company
Fire doors - monthly check by myself
E Lighting - monthly visual by me, 6 monthly 1 hr discharge, annual service and 3 hr discharge by service company
Fire alarms - 6 monthly by service provider

Scott

grim72 · Post by **grim72** » Mon Aug 05, 2019 9:12 am

We recently added fire (and first aid) equipment checklists to our app in case you are interested in testing it out - allows to set your own schedules etc. Just let me know if you want info and I'll pm you the details.

Essex · Post by **Essex** » Thu Aug 08, 2019 1:23 pm

Periodic inspection times should be determined by a competent person fully verses with BS7671 and 5839, not the building user.

markholly · Post by **markholly** » Thu Aug 08, 2019 4:04 pm

Our company do the following:

Fire alarm - Weekly using different call points each time, 6 monthly service conducted by contractor
Fire doors & Exits - Monthly check carried by a competent person
FFE - Monthly and then yearly conducted by contractor
EL - Fish key test monthly - Yearly conducted by contractor

Thanks

Mark

stephen1974 · Post by **stephen1974** » Thu Aug 08, 2019 6:44 pm

FFE is the one i'm trying to decide on at the moment.
I've almost always done weekly, but that was the leisure industry where kids set them off, knock them off walls, steal them etc...
Now i'm doing a mix of places where people are not interested in doing H&S at all and things get missed for months at a time. So i'm trying to make it easier to do so they are more inclined to do it. One of those things is looking at the best schedule. I was thinking of putting everything monthly (other than call point checks) but as im also dealing with warehouses and workshops as well as offices, i'm reluctant to go to monthly for the FFE as i've seen some attrocious house keeping in these place.

Its just been interesting to see how different people do different things and how all over the place standards, regs and guidance are.

Essex · Post by **Essex** » Fri Aug 09, 2019 10:44 pm

The Standards are very clear. It is up to the inspector to decide.

Post by **bernicarey** » Sat Aug 10, 2019 11:06 am

Regarding FFA routine checks, BS5306-3:2017 isn't 'law' but it is the standard so the benchmark that the authorities would use.

This is the latest version, which puts the onus on the Competent Person to advise the Responsible Person of the requirement.

The earlier version from 2009 put the onus directly on the Responsible Person:

IMHO, this was a retrograde step changing it, as I think some people believe the requirement has been removed completely (as it moved from para 5 to para 11) and it's made it a responsibility of the Fire Extinguisher installer to tell the RP about it. How many will actually do that, when they're rushing from client to client?

witsd · Post by **witsd** » Tue Aug 13, 2019 9:36 am

I try to encourage a monthly visual check of all areas, which incorporates emergency lighting, FFE and infrequently-used exits.

The main issue I have is getting managers to agree to allow inspections to look into lift motor rooms (just opening the door to look – not even crossing the threshold), but apparently there are some kind of 'health and safety' issues with that.

Just as a point of interest, I have been aware of some residential buildings that have been fitted with a fire alarm system for mysterious reasons to carry out monthly MCP tests. Whilst I understand their reasoning to a point, it really means that the system should never have been installed in the first place...

hammer1 · Post by **hammer1** » Tue Aug 13, 2019 3:16 pm

witsd wrote: ↑Tue Aug 13, 2019 9:36 am I try to encourage a monthly visual check of all areas, which incorporates emergency lighting, FFE and infrequently-used exits.

The main issue I have is getting managers to agree to allow inspections to look into lift motor rooms (just opening the door to look – not even crossing the threshold), but apparently there are some kind of 'health and safety' issues with that.

Just as a point of interest, I have been aware of some residential buildings that have been fitted with a fire alarm system for mysterious reasons to carry out monthly MCP tests. Whilst I understand their reasoning to a point, it really means that the system should never have been installed in the first place...

In regards to above agree, FIA document states, through justification Grade A systems that are installed can have no MCPs installed - this however needs to be justified and agreed with fire authority.

I have had plenty discussions on MCPs in resi many, many times (and loads on here

) especially conversions where there maybe x 1 MCP in place that potentially gets tested x 4 times a month. As with most things, so long you can justify any deviation and discuss with fire authority/ ensure details are captured in FRA - you should be ok, unless you come up against a code hugging, power hungry fire enforcing officer