Fire alarm testing for Birmingham buildings
Birmingham has one of the largest council housing estates in Europe and a city centre full of new residential towers, so we see the full range: fire door programmes, communal alarm upgrades and higher-risk building safety cases.
A fire alarm that has not been tested is an assumption, not a safety system. Detectors drift, batteries age, sounders get painted over and rooms get partitioned without anyone thinking about the detection. Testing is how you find out before a fire does.
There are three layers of testing. The user carries out a weekly test from a different manual call point each week. A competent engineer inspects and services the system at intervals of no more than six months. Every detector, call point and sounder should be functionally tested over the course of each year. We handle the engineer visits and set you up to run the weekly test properly.
The rules that apply in Birmingham
Rented homes in England must have a smoke alarm on each storey used as living accommodation and a carbon monoxide alarm in any room with a fixed combustion appliance, other than a gas cooker. HMO licence conditions set by the local council often go further and call for a mains-wired, interlinked system to BS 5839-6.
What is included
- One-off full system test and condition survey
- Functional testing of detectors with test gas, heat and smoke
- Manual call point and sounder or beacon tests
- Sound level checks in bedrooms and occupied areas
- Battery capacity and charger tests
- Cause and effect verification (door holders, AOVs, lifts, plant)
- Weekly test training and test rota for your staff
- Written test report with pass, fault and variation notes
Buildings we work on in Birmingham
- New building owners
- Managing agents taking on a block
- Landlords
- Schools
- Offices
- Warehouses
Areas we cover from Birmingham
From Birmingham we also cover West Bromwich (5 miles), Sutton Coldfield (6 miles), Solihull (7 miles), Walsall (8 miles) and Dudley (8 miles). Elsewhere in West Midlands we work in Coventry, Wolverhampton, Solihull, Walsall, Dudley and West Bromwich. If your building is not in a listed town, we still cover it: every enquiry for fire alarm testing in West Midlands is handled the same way.