BuildingReports Blog

The following is part of an ongoing series of thought leadership contributions from BuildIngReports' network of over 900 Service Members during the COVID-19 pandemic. We hope that facility management professionals, especially those with more downtime than normal, find them useful in advancing their knowledge during this time. Thank you to Guardian Security and Bob Vezzani for the contribution!

When annual fire inspection time rolls around – or, a property receives notification that the fire department wants to see an inspection completed on demand – it can be a stressful time for managers of a commercial property. To address this, here are some recommendations for businesses of all sizes.

The following blog post was provided by BuildingReports' Service Member, Performance Systems Integration. For more information or to contact them regarding inspection, testing and maintenance services in the Pacific Northwest, visit www.psintegrated.com.

As COVID-19 continues to change the world we live and work in, many businesses are forced to send their workers home. Therefore, some employers and building managers may feel that maintaining and complying with fire and life safety measures during the pandemic is unnecessary.

Entering data for smoke detector sensitivity so that the range will populate automatically in your report can sometimes be a challenge, especially if the detector head supplies only the range of the detector while the rating, minus and plus values (which compute to give you the range) are not provided. Since the Smoke Detector device record in our applications allows you to enter the Rating and Minus/Plus values so that a range will populate automatically, how do you address this type of scenario so that the range will populate successfully?

The following is an excerpt from the September issue of BUILDINGS. To read the full article by Justin Feit, click the link below.

Audits by Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services accredited agencies can cause sleepless nights for those responsible for fire and life safety systems in healthcare occupancy types. Not only can the outcome lead to having to cut employees loose and steep fines, but because these audits results are reported publicly it can also have a negative impact from a public relations standpoint.

The fact is only 20% of facilities pass annually with zero discrepancies. To help facility management and maintenance better prepare for audits the CMS release a list of the top ten life safety discrepancies by the percentage of facilities cited. Keeping these in mind when preparing for an audit could help you become the one in five to pass your next audit rather than the exception.

How prepared are you for a fire inspection? Your local fire marshal can stop by to inspect your business anytime, so it is of grave importance to make sure your building is up to code at all times. But what exactly does “up to code” mean? After all, fire codes can be very complex and while many aspects of the inspection are ‘common sense’, there are some that can really offer trouble understanding.

BuildingReports, thanks to its massive network of independent inspection companies and facility users, has compiled the world's largest database of fire and life safety inspection reporting. But, with great success comes great responsibility. Often overlooked are the opportunities that arise with the advantages of big data. For those not familiar with the information technology term, big data refers to extremely large data sets that may be analyzed computationally to reveal patterns, trends, and associations.

In today's advanced technological landscape, smart phones (perhaps more accurately described as mobile computers) and the "Internet of Things" (devices, vehicles, buildings and other items which are embedded with electronics, software, sensors, and network connectivity) are the norm. We can manage the temperature in a building remotely, we can start our cars with our cell phones and, in fact, those cars may be driving themselves before too long.

Given the fire and life safety industry has been relatively slow to adopt technology versus some other industries, it may not be surprising to learn there are a number of misconceptions about technology when it comes to code compliance and reporting. In fact, all primary Fire Codes now allow for electronic inspection reporting:

As a Facility Manager or Building Owner, you have to make sure your up to code keeping all of your tenants safe. But being up to code means more than just fixing a few electrical issues. There are hundreds (if not thousands) of ways to fail your building's fire inspection. That's why we've pulled together 10 of the most common shortcomings in the infographic below.