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Category M
Manual systems only. Call points and sounders with no automatic detection, appropriate where the fire risk assessment concludes manual raising of the alarm is sufficient.
Fire Alarms
Fire Alarm Installation London
Addressable and conventional fire detection and alarm systems for commercial premises, designed to BS 5839-1, commissioned properly and certified on completion.
System Categories
Getting The Category Right
BS 5839-1 defines fire alarm systems by what they are there to protect. Specifying the wrong category is the most common and most expensive mistake we are asked to correct.
Category L
Life protection, graded L5 through L1. L1 gives detection throughout all areas; L2 and L3 protect escape routes and adjoining rooms; L4 covers circulation areas; L5 addresses a specific defined risk.
Category P
Property protection. P1 covers the whole building for earliest possible detection, P2 covers defined high risk areas. Often driven by an insurer rather than by fire safety legislation.
Scope Of Works
What Installation Includes
Design
Detector and call point layout, zoning, sounder coverage and audibility levels, panel location and network topology on larger or multi building sites.
Cause & Effect
Programming what the building does on activation: phased evacuation, door release on access controlled doors, lift homing, plant and ventilation shutdown, and interfacing to other systems.
Commissioning
Every device tested and recorded, sound levels verified, interfaces proven, and the panel handed over configured rather than left on factory defaults.
Certification & Handover
Design, installation and commissioning certificates issued, zone charts fitted at the panel, as fitted drawings supplied and responsible persons shown how to operate and test the system.
Keeping It Compliant
Servicing & Testing
Weekly Test
Your responsible person tests a call point weekly, rotating through them, and records it in the fire log book. We show your team how and set the routine up at handover.
Periodic Servicing
Systems are serviced by a competent engineer at intervals appropriate to the installation, with every device inspected across the service cycle and results recorded.
Takeovers
Inherited a system with no history or paperwork? We survey it, report honestly on its condition and standard, and bring it onto a documented maintenance regime.
Common Questions
Fire Alarm FAQs
What category do I need?
It follows from your fire risk assessment, the building use and the escape strategy. We survey the premises and specify against BS 5839-1 rather than quoting a category blind.
Addressable or conventional?
Conventional systems identify a zone; addressable systems identify the individual device. On anything beyond a small simple building, addressable pays for itself in faster fault finding and fewer disruptive false alarm investigations.
Can you work around our operation?
Yes. Fire alarm works in occupied buildings are usually phased, with noisy and disruptive activities and full system tests scheduled out of hours.
Can you interface it with our access control?
Yes, and it is essential. Access controlled doors on escape routes must release on fire alarm activation. We install both disciplines, so the interface is designed rather than bodged between two contractors.
Talk To Us About Fire
New installation, system upgrade, takeover or a servicing contract that has lapsed. Tell us about the building and we will arrange a survey.