Our approach
How we work, and what you are left holding.
The eight steps of a job, what each one leaves behind, and what the record has to be able to answer years after we have gone.
Eight steps, and what each one leaves behind.
The same eight steps run on every job, whether it is one riser cupboard or a whole block.
Each one produces a piece of the record as it goes, because once a ceiling is closed the information cannot be recovered, only guessed at.
-
01
Technical review, before a price
We check the instruction against the fire strategy, the tested systems available and the construction actually in front of us. What we checked, what we queried and what you decided goes on a one-page note, and no price goes out without it.
Leaves behindA written technical position, agreed before anybody turns up on site.
-
02
Survey and referencing
We find every element in scope, give each one a permanent reference, and record the condition we found it in. The reference is written on the element itself, so every photograph and certificate afterwards points at the same door or the same seal.
Leaves behindThe register, opened, with the condition found and how much void or riser had to be opened to see the line.
-
03
Specification, and what the test actually covers
A certificate covers a tested configuration, not a product. We settle the tested system for each situation before work starts, and where the test evidence does not stretch to the wall in front of us we resolve that first rather than afterwards.
Leaves behindThe test evidence and field of application relied on, held against the asset.
-
04
Installation
Installed to the tested system by named people whose competence is on record. Nothing specified is swapped for something else without written technical approval.
Leaves behindMethod, the named installer, the date, and photographs that identify the element rather than illustrate the day.
-
05
Quality assurance
Somebody who did not do the work checks it against the tested system it was supposed to follow, at a stated sample rate.
Leaves behindThe defects raised, how each was closed, and who accepted the closure.
-
06
Completion
Before a job closes, the technical authority tests the project file against the six-part completion test. Not the person who ran the job.
Leaves behindA project that cannot close on an incomplete pack, and a check that is recorded.
-
07
Handover
The pack is checked against a standing contents list and issued without you having to ask for it.
Leaves behindRegisters, traceability, verification records and maintenance information, structured for your systems.
-
08
The standing regime
What has to be inspected, how often, against what, and what to do when another trade opens a protected element. Every proposal we issue describes it, tendered or not.
Leaves behindA maintenance regime the duty holder can run, and a record that can be kept current.
A register, keyed to a location, tied to a product, traceable to a test.
Not a folder of photographs. The record is written so it can be picked up and used at a Gateway submission, in a safety case, at the next refurbishment, at the next inspection, and by a duty holder who has never heard of us.
Six categories, on every instruction, whether it is one riser cupboard or a block. The contents scale with the job. The categories do not.
Identity and location
Asset, door and fire stopping registers, unique permanent references, floor and room location, and the position marked on a drawing.
Product and traceability
Manufacturer, product reference, batch or serial data where it exists, test evidence and field of application, certification scope, and the datasheet the installation relied on.
Installation
Method, the named installer and their recorded competence, date, the condition found beforehand, and photographs before, during and after.
Verification
Inspection records and sample rates, defects raised, how each was closed, and who accepted the closure.
Maintenance and lifecycle
Maintenance recommendations, inspection frequencies, what to do when the element is altered, and what evidence the next person has to capture to keep the record true.
Handover
A digital pack structured for the duty holder’s system rather than ours, indexed to the asset, and issued without being requested.
The rules that apply to every register.
The extract on the home page is three rows of one.
A register is a working record, not a report. It is kept current, never overwritten, and issued with a revision like any other controlled document.
The first column is the key. A unique, permanent reference that is never reused, even when the element it names is replaced. A replaced element gets a new row and the old row is closed, not deleted.
Status fields are controlled lists. If a value somebody needs is not in the list, the list is wrong and is changed deliberately rather than worked around by typing something else.
An empty cell means not yet recorded. It never means compliant, not applicable, or nothing to report. Where one of those is the answer, the cell says so.
A package complete in five of these and weak in the sixth is not finished.
The six are not ranked.
The work
The right specification for the risk and the construction, within a tested system that actually covers the configuration in front of us.
The workmanship
Installed as the test required, by somebody competent to install it, and checked by somebody other than the person who did it.
The quality assurance
Inspected against the specification and the tested system at a declared sample rate, with defects raised, closed, and the closure evidenced.
The documentation
Method, certification, product data and the field of application relied on, held against the asset rather than in a folder.
The evidence
Captured at the point of work, with photographs that identify the location and the element rather than illustrate the day.
The asset information
Structured so that the duty holder, and whoever holds the duty after them, can maintain the element without asking us anything.
The record has toanswer without us.
A person who has never met us should be able to open the record and answer what is installed, where, why, when, by whom, using which products, to what standard, and how it should be maintained.
That is the test the record is written to pass.
The specification is checkedagainst the strategy,not against the price.
Where a specification asks for more than the fire strategy and the tested system require, we say so in writing, with the reason, before the order is placed. Where the client wants it anyway, we fit it and record why, so the next assessor does not read it as evidence of a defect.
Where another contractor’s work is sound, we say so. A report that finds nothing wrong is a legitimate outcome and is written with the same care as one that finds something.
Where a better approach exists we recommend it, including where it belongs to another product, another trade or another contract.
Four moments, all of them after we have gone.
Each one is somebody opening the record who was never on site and cannot ring the installer.
At a Gateway submission
The evidence the application asks for, ready at the point it is asked for.
In a building safety case
Records indexed to the asset, so the case can cite them directly.
At the next alteration
A register the next contractor can read before opening a ceiling.
At sale
Evidence that passes to the buyer with the building, not with us.
Tell us about the building.
New build, refurbishment, remediation, planned maintenance, inspection, or the information a building has to be able to produce.
Or speak to one of us directly.
nick@compartis.co.uk
sam@compartis.co.uk