Services

What PFS does — and, just as carefully, what it does not.

Each service is defined tightly on purpose. An inspection firm sells one thing: the belief that what it wrote down is what it saw. Every boundary below protects that.

Service 1

Building Survey & Firestop Inventory

A visual, non-destructive survey of an existing building that establishes what passive fire protection exists and what condition it appears to be in. Penetrations and joints are located, photographed and recorded as observed: where a system carries a label or can be matched to the building's documentation, that is recorded; where it cannot, the record says so. Each item is noted as appearing to be in serviceable condition or appearing to need work. The result is an inventory — and where the client can provide drawings, it can be recorded digitally against them.

What it is not
A compliance inspection, and not a guarantee. A survey does not apply ASTM E2174 or E2393, does not produce a pass or fail, and the inventory has no Compliant, Approved or Certified status — deliberately. PFS does not assign a listed system to a seal that carries no label and cannot be matched to documentation; a visual survey cannot establish what is inside an installed seal without destructive examination, which PFS does not perform. Where the required fire-resistance rating of a barrier cannot be established from a documented source, it is recorded as assumed, and every conclusion about that barrier is qualified by it.
Who it is for
Owners and facility managers of existing buildings; purchasers doing due diligence; design teams planning renovation or tenant fit-out.
What you receive
A Building Survey & Firestop Inventory Report with the inventory schedule, photographic record, marked-up drawings where the client has provided drawings, a section on assemblies with no identifiable listed system, prioritised recommendations, and a proposed maintenance program.
Service 2

Digital Firestop Asset & Maintenance Program

The inventory becomes a living record. Assets are tracked on a cloud-based field-management platform against a defined data dictionary, reviewed at an agreed interval, and the owner receives an annual status summary showing exactly what was reviewed, what needs attention, what was repaired, and what PFS has and has not re-inspected.

Why the status list has five values and no 'Compliant'

Existing · Reviewed · Follow-up Required · Repair Documented · Re-Review Required. PFS records what it observed against a listed system on a date. It does not certify compliance, and a status field is exactly where a client, an installer or a lawyer would later read a certification into the record.

What it is not
A compliance certificate, an inspection certificate, or evidence for an insurer — the annual summary says so on its first page. A repair reported to PFS with evidence is recorded as Repair Documented, not Reviewed: evidence handed to PFS is not verification by PFS.
Who it is for
Owners and managers of buildings that change — hospitals, campuses, data centres, multi-tenant commercial — where rated assemblies are penetrated by later trades and forgotten in fit-outs.
What you receive
A configured digital asset register the owner can view at any time, the inventory kept current between reviews, and an Annual Maintenance Status Summary each period.
Service 3

Field Verification — ASTM E2174 / ASTM E2393

Independent third-party inspection, during construction, of installed systems against the CAN/ULC-S115 listed systems the inspection documents call for — penetration firestop systems by the procedures of ASTM E2174, fire-resistive joint systems and perimeter fire barriers by the procedures of ASTM E2393. The verification method, and the sampling that follows from it, are agreed with the authorizing authority before work starts. The notification schedule and the communication method for deficiencies are agreed with the installer before installation begins. Forms are sequentially numbered, one per system type. Every deficiency is documented on the form and physically identified on site.

The timing and sampling rules, because they are the part most easily missed

Deficiencies advised to the installer within one working day — required by ASTM E2393; under ASTM E2174 the notice period is agreed before installation, and PFS's is one working day. Inspection forms issued within one working day after an area is inspected — both practices. Inspection of completed work within two working days of the installer's notice — both practices. Re-inspection of repaired work within two working days of the installer's notice — required by E2174, recommended by E2393, and PFS's commitment under both. Minimum sampling follows the practice for the method selected: for penetrations, witnessing at least 10 % of each system type during installation, or post-installation verification of at least 2 % and not fewer than one of each type per floor or 10 000 ft² area; for joints, witnessing at least 5 % of the linear feet of each type, or post-installation sampling by a method approved by the authorizing authority and the AHJ, at least once per type per 500 lineal feet. A failed system is re-inspected after repair and one further full sample of that type is taken. When non-compliance reaches 10 % of the quantity of a type inspected, inspection of that type ceases until the installer has inspected and repaired its own work. All of this is written into PFS's procedures and calculated on every project.

What it is not
Accredited special inspection — PFS is not currently an accredited Special Inspection Agency. Not design, specification, installation, repair, or supervision or direction of any part of the installation. PFS inspects to listed systems and to judgements already issued for the project — by the manufacturer or an accredited testing laboratory, and acceptable to the authority having jurisdiction, as the practices require. PFS does not write, request or procure judgements; where a condition has neither a listed system nor a judgement, it is recorded as a deficiency and the contractor obtains one. Where the selected method requires an installed system to be opened, the installer opens it; PFS observes, measures and records, and does not cut, open, repair or take possession of any material.
Who it is for
Owners and their consultants who need an independent inspection record; general contractors who want deficiencies found early and closed cleanly; the authorizing authority — typically the architect, engineer or owner's representative who accepts the inspection — and the authority having jurisdiction, who need records they can rely on.
What you receive
Inspection forms issued to the authorizing authority and the installer within one working day after each area is inspected; a deficiency register with re-inspection history; and a final report in the form the practices require — the types and quantity of each system on the project, the verification method used, the quantity of each type inspected, deficiency percentages by type and overall, and every inspection form in chronological order.
Service 4

Closeout Documentation Review

A review of the contractor's firestop turnover package — approved submittals, the CAN/ULC-S115 listings actually relied on, the location schedule, installer qualifications, labelling, inspection and remediation records, judgements, as-builts — for completeness and internal consistency. What is there, what is missing, what does not match, and what that means.

What it is not
An audit, and it is never called one. It is not a certification that the installed firestopping complies, and not a verification that the installations described exist — unless PFS also inspected them, in which case those inspections are reported under their own numbers. The most common substantive finding is a location schedule citing system numbers that no listing document in the package actually covers. That is a documentation finding, and the report says exactly that.
Who it is for
Owners and consultants accepting a turnover package; contractors who would rather find the gaps before the owner's consultant does.
What you receive
A Closeout Documentation Review Report against a twelve-element completeness checklist, with gaps ranked by consequence.
Service 5

Advisory & Contractor Support

Specification review under Section 07 84 00 (Firestopping) for owners and design teams, and non-project-specific support for contractors — QA/QC templates, workflow, listing education and general technical training.

What it is not
Anything project-specific for a contractor: live estimating, take-offs, system selection, drafting or requesting judgements, remediation direction, or a hand in design or installation decisions. That kind of involvement disqualifies PFS from ever inspecting that structure independently, so PFS does not do it. The question is asked at intake, every time.
Who it is for
Design teams writing or reviewing a firestop specification; contractors building a quality system or training a crew, on their own account rather than on a particular job.
What you receive
As defined in the proposal — a specification review memo, a training session, a QA/QC template set.

Not sure which service fits?

Describe the building or the project. We will tell you what we would do, what we would not, and why.

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