How we decide

Five decisions, made differently.

Each arises on ordinary jobs. In each one, understanding the regime the work sits inside changes what is priced, what is installed or what is handed over. Four of the five reduce the value of the order in front of us.

01The five

01

A blanket door specification

The situation: A schedule specifies FD60S doorsets throughout a residential block, including flat entrance doors where the fire strategy and the guidance relied on at design stage support FD30S.
The usual response: Price the schedule. It is what the client asked for, it is a larger order, and nobody was ever criticised for fitting a heavier door.
What Compartis does: Check the specification against the strategy and the provision it relies on, then say plainly that the upgrade is not required and what it will cost. Where the client still wants it, we fit it and record the reason, so that the next assessor does not treat it as evidence of a defect that was never there.
What it changes: The client keeps money that was about to be spent on no additional protection, and the record explains an apparent anomaly before anybody has to investigate it.

02

A field of application that does not cover the wall

The situation: A certificated doorset or a fire stopping system is specified for a construction the test evidence does not cover. A doorset tested in masonry going into a lightweight partition, or a penetration seal with a service bundle no test addresses.
The usual response: Install to the datasheet and issue the certificate. The product is certificated, so the paperwork looks complete.
What Compartis does: Identify that the field of application does not reach the configuration, and resolve it before installation, in order: a different tested system, then an extended application report where the standard allows the evidence to be stretched by rule, then a technical assessment resting on primary test data from an accredited laboratory. The reasoning is recorded against the asset, and an assessment is better taken from somebody independent of the product than from its manufacturer.
What it changes: The building avoids a population of elements carrying certificates that mean nothing in the construction they sit in. It is the failure that survives longest undetected, because every element in it has paperwork and the fault is in the relationship between them.

03

Replace all the doors

The situation: A remediation scope says replace all fire doors, following a survey that graded the population as failed.
The usual response: Price the replacement. It is simpler to deliver, easier to warrant and considerably more valuable.
What Compartis does: Separate the population by defect. Doors beyond repair are replaced. Doors failing on gaps, seals, closers or hinges are adjusted or repaired where the doorset and its evidence support it, and each decision is recorded against the individual door with the reason.
What it changes: The client spends what the risk requires rather than what the survey implied, and the position is defensible door by door if it is ever questioned.

04

Somebody else’s cable through our wall

The situation: Three weeks after completion, another trade runs services through a compartment wall Compartis installed and makes good with the wrong material.
The usual response: Not our scope. It is also not our problem, and raising it invites an argument about whose defect it is.
What Compartis does: Record it, report it in writing to the person who can act on it, and note it against the asset so that the duty holder’s record does not quietly become untrue. We price the correction if asked and we do not press for it, and the report says plainly that the correction would be work for us, so that a finding is never mistaken for a sales route.
What it changes: The breach is closed while somebody still knows it is there, and the building’s record continues to match the building.

05

A number, or an asset

The situation: A client asks for a survey of a large door population, quickly, to establish a budget figure.
The usual response: Sample the stock, extrapolate, issue a spreadsheet and a total. It is fast and it answers the question that was asked.
What Compartis does: Explain what each option produces. An unreferenced sample gives a number that cannot be used in a safety case, a funding application or a maintenance regime, and will be repeated at cost within two years. A referenced survey produces the same budget figure plus a register the duty holder keeps using.
What it changes: The client understands that they are choosing between a number and an asset. The ones who genuinely only need a number get one, with its limitations written on it.

02Take it with you

The same five, as a document.

Seven pages, formatted to be read away from a screen and circulated to the people who were not on the call. We will send it to you and we will not add you to anything.

03Worked examples, not case studies

The method, described precisely enough to judge.

Each example is a typical situation on ordinary jobs, and what Compartis does in it.

Every decision above is recorded against the element it concerns, so that the reason survives the conversation it was made in.

Tell us about the building.

New build, refurbishment, remediation, planned maintenance, inspection, or the information a building has to be able to produce.

Make an enquiry

Or speak to one of us directly.
nick@compartis.co.uk
sam@compartis.co.uk