Fire Alarm Installation and Maintenance

We survey the property and recommend the system that meets the rules that apply.

• Interlinked alarms: When one alarm detects fire, they all sound, so you hear it wherever you are in the house.
• Mains-powered with battery backup: So they keep working in a power cut.
• Radio-interlinked alarms: Alarms that link wirelessly, avoiding cables between them in a finished home.
• The right detector in each room: Optical smoke alarms in hallways, landings and living rooms; heat alarms in kitchens, where smoke alarms give false alarms; and carbon monoxide alarms in rooms with a boiler, gas fire or wood burner.

Alarms have a replace-by date printed on them. Any new circuit is certified through one of the routes the building regulations allow, through our domestic electrical installation service.

Since 1 October 2022, private and social landlords in England must:

• fit at least one smoke alarm on every storey with a room used as living accommodation;
• fit a carbon monoxide alarm in any room used as living accommodation with a fixed combustion appliance, such as a boiler or wood burner (gas cookers are excluded);
• repair or replace an alarm once they are told it is faulty.

Private landlords must also check the alarms are working on the first day of each new tenancy. The rules do not require a particular type of alarm. Landlords also need an EICR at least every five years through our electrical maintenance services, and a yearly landlord gas safety certificate.

Approved Document B, the fire safety guidance to the building regulations, calls for mains-powered, interlinked alarms with battery backup in new homes, designed to BS 5839-6. For most houses, the minimum is a Grade D2, Category LD3 system:

• Grade D1 or D2: Mains-powered alarms with a sealed (D1) or replaceable (D2) backup battery.
• Category LD3: Alarms on the escape route, such as hallways and landings.
• Category LD2 or LD1: Extra alarms in rooms where a fire is more likely to start, such as kitchens and living rooms, or in all such rooms.

When you add a new storey with a loft conversion, or new rooms with a house extension, the alarms usually need to be extended so the whole escape route is covered on every storey.

Yes, in almost all cases. Councils set fire safety standards for houses in multiple occupation through licensing conditions and inspections, often based on national fire safety guidance for housing. A small shared house usually needs mains-powered, interlinked alarms on the escape route, with extra detectors in rooms such as the kitchen and, often, bedrooms. Larger HMOs, bedsits and buildings converted into flats may need a Grade A system with a control panel, plus emergency lighting. The shared parts of an HMO also come under the Fire Safety Order, so a fire risk assessment is needed. Check your licence conditions before work starts, and we design the system to meet them.

Under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, the "responsible person" for non-domestic premises must carry out a fire risk assessment, which sets out the fire detection and warning the building needs. Commercial systems are designed, installed and serviced to BS 5839-1, which uses categories:

• Category M: Manual call points only, at exits and on escape routes.
• Category L (L1 to L5): Automatic detection to protect life, from the whole building (L1) down to escape routes (L4) or specific risks (L5).
• Category P (P1 and P2): Automatic detection to protect the building and its contents.

A system can be conventional, where the panel shows the zone, or addressable, where it shows the exact device. Emergency lighting to BS 5266-1 is covered by our commercial electrical installation service, and fit-outs by our commercial construction service.

BS 5839 is the British Standard code of practice for fire detection and fire alarm systems. Part 1 covers non-domestic premises and Part 6 covers homes, including HMOs. It sets out how systems are designed, installed, commissioned and maintained, and the records to keep.

• Homes: Press the test button at least once a month, keep alarms free of dust, and replace them by the date printed on them.
• Commercial systems: BS 5839-1 recommends a weekly test from a different call point each week, carried out by the responsible person, and inspection and servicing by a competent person, commonly every six months. Results go in the logbook.

Our maintenance visits test detectors, call points and sounders, check the panel and standby batteries, and record the results. Repeated false alarms are investigated and put right.