If you own a commercial building with multiple floors, you may be required by local or federal regulations to have certain fire protection measures in place. One of these could be to have firestop materials installed in between each floor or around a fire or emergency door on the property. You are of course required by these regulations to keep your building in good condition and ensure you are doing what you can to reduce the chances of a fire spreading from room to room or floor to floor should one break out. With that said, here's why you should hire your own third-party firestop inspector instead of waiting for a local, state, or federal inspector to tell you that you have a problem.
Being Proactive About Firestop Inspection Can Help You Avoid a Fine or a Delay to Your Daily Operations
If you wait until an official government or regulatory inspector takes a look at your building and finds your firestop material is no longer up to par, this could result in a costly fine or your business might even be temporarily shut down until the issue is fixed. News of this issue might even be publicly disclosed and end up in bad PR for your company. Get your own third-party inspector to inspect your building more frequently than the official government inspector comes out, and you may notice a potential problem that you can get fixed before you get in trouble for not keeping up with local building codes.
Being Proactive About Firestop Inspection Will Give You and Your Employees Better Peace of Mind
A regular inspection by a firestop expert you've hired yourself may also provide additional peace of mind and security for your own employees. They will see that you are taking steps to maintain a safe work environment for all. In the event that a fire does break out on one floor, this knowledge may help reduce a panic with people able to leave the building in a more orderly and calm fashion instead of freaking out because they are scared the fire will quickly spread.
A Third Party Firestop Inspector Can Help You Avoid a Delay If You Are Looking to Sell Your Building
If your commercial building will be going up for sale, you can be certain that the buyer will likely send in their own inspector at some point before the sale closes. If you wait until the buyer's inspector finds a problem, this could reduce the amount of money you might make or it could delay or even torpedo the entire transaction. If you know you will be selling soon, make a firestop inspection one of the things you get done on your own so you can move forward with the sale knowing that the building is safe and ready to go.