Why New Buildings Have So Many Frustrating Fire Safety Problems
If you’ve ever moved into a brand-new condo building, you may have noticed a surprising amount of false alarms and other problems with the life safety systems. Or if you’re that building’s manager, owner, or condo board, you may be incredibly frustrated by these problems.
You might say (or possibly yell), “This system is brand new! And state-of-the-art! Why isn’t it working properly?!” You’ve invested in the best system, installed by the best people, and you’re still having problems.
The good news is you’re not alone. Nearly all new condo buildings will experience issues in the first couple of years. The reality is that they’re somewhat unavoidable because of the many variables in play.
Variables such as…
1. People/ Residents
People are one of the most unpredictable elements you can add to any equation.
As soon as you begin the occupancy stage, people will come in and do things like leaving door closers unhinged because they didn't want the automatic doors to close while they were moving their furniture. Or maybe they accidentally nudge a pull station with the corner of their couch.
As weeks turn into months, your residents will also make changes to the actual building in the form of renovations. Even something as simple as installing pot lights in the kitchen can impact the entire building. A resident may unknowingly cut holes in the fire separation between them and their neighbour’s unit, which can lead to odour migration issues or smoke migration issues.
2. New Staff
This is another part of the human equation. A new building means new staff members.
You can train your staff to the best of your ability when it comes to fire safety. You can also hire people with extensive condo experience working in comparable buildings. However, there is still always going to be a learning curve, so to speak.
Every building is unique and has its own challenges or intricacies, many of which we’ll explore in the next few sections. A number of unpredictable events are going to be thrown at your new staff, and it will take them a while to learn the complexity of your specific building.
3. Dust
The smallest particles can be the biggest problem for your life safety system.
With new construction, there's no shortage of dust in the air. It can get into your alarms and compromise the sensors. This may lead to false alarms.
Perhaps even more frustratingly, the dust from your neighbour's construction can also wreak havoc with your life safety system. We’ve actually worked with clients that were having problems because their neighbouring building wasn’t finished yet. Their fresh air system was sucking in all the dust from the construction next door, which meant they had to replace all of the smoke detectors within two years of the building being built.
This is obviously incredibly frustrating. And you can imagine how common this issue is in a city like Toronto with new builds popping up constantly.
4. Code Changes
Generally speaking, buildings under five years old are considered ‘new’ buildings.
If your building was built five years ago, it would have missed a major fire code change: The introduction of The CAN/ULC-S1001 Standard for Integrated Systems Testing. This standard became required by law in June 2020 and requires that all new buildings (and substantial retrofits) need to have their life safety system’s various parts tested together in an integrated fashion.??
These integrated tests are actually an incredibly effective way to diagnose the hidden issues that can arise in a new building. This is the first standard that tests all of your life safety system’s components (i.e. alarms, doors, elevators, smoke control/vents and everything else) together to ensure that they’re communicating properly and that the proper cascading series of events can take place.
Your fire alarms can pass their individual tests, and your sprinklers can pass their individual tests. However, if you don’t test them together in an integrated fashion, you could have hidden problems. One may not trigger the other and there’s unfortunately no way to know that until they’re tested together– or in an emergency situation.
That’s why S-1001 integrated testing is a major step forward in fire safety, particularly for new buildings.
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5. Ongoing Maintenance
Think of a brand-new car. It’s probably going to roll off the lot in perfect working order. However, from there, the onus is somewhat on you to keep it up with regular maintenance. You need to change the oil regularly. You need to add snow tires in the harsher months to get peak performance.
Your building’s life safety system requires the same ongoing maintenance to keep it running optimally, keep it compliant, and keep things safe.?
This means your staff needs to be fully trained on the specifics of that maintenance and how to document it.
6. You Never Know How a Building Will Live and Breathe
You never truly know how your building is going to react to the environment it lives in.
Let’s take a look at the GTA area alone. You can put up a building in Yorkville and then build that exact same building on the waterfront. Those two buildings are going to face different challenges. The waterfront building is going to probably have to deal with more moisture in the air, and punishing winter wind right off the lake. Now, build that same building in Barrie and it’s going to face even colder temperatures and more snow, which comes with a whole new set of challenges.
As we said earlier, a new construction right next to your building could possibly impact your alarms. You can’t always plan for that.
These are only a few examples of things that you can’t always account for, and may not fully understand until Year 1 or Year 2 of your building's life.
7. Staged Occupancy
The industry standard used to be:
Now, with the widespread popularity of staged occupancy, we’re seeing a condo finishing two or three floors, then moving people in immediately as the rest of the building is completed. This creates a number of issues for fire safety as you attempt to bring different systems (on different floors) online at different times.
8. No/Less Staff in Buildings
As budget margins are being trimmed thinner and thinner, we're seeing a lot more buildings that do not have security or superintendents on site.
Or they may have part-time or contract superintendents and cleaners. It’s now very common for some high-rise buildings, smaller boutique-type buildings or townhouse complexes to use part-time property management companies, which gives them 10 - 15 hours a week. This is relatively new.
On a very simple level, having someone on-site full-time gives you someone that can walk the halls, flag issues, identify opportunities, and communicate with residents. If you’re going to go with no/minimal staff, it’s important to have a comprehensive plan to map out how you’re going to ensure fire safety and manage compliance.
9. More Complex Systems
In the early days of fire safety, buildings had a pull station that was connected to an alarm. You pulled the station and the alarms would sound. That was pretty much the extent of it.
Today, our life safety systems are incredibly complex and continue to grow more so each year. Your life safety system now includes your pull stations, alarms, automated doors, sprinkler systems, elevators, smoke controls, mag locks, and much, much more.
The more elements you add to any system, the more potential there is for technical issues when trying to get them to work together. At the same time, these systems need more testing, more documentation, and more specialized experts to install and maintain them.
As experienced and respected fire safety consultants, we’ve seen it all. We specialize in working with you to find solutions to meet the challenges you may face with a new building, while also helping you look ahead and plan for the future.
Feel free to contact us at 1 (800) 281-8863 or by clicking here.