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Fire compartmentation is the main aspect of your passive fire protection strategy and is crucial to your overall fire safety practices. With new regulations and a focus on undertaking Fire Risk Assessments, organisations often overlook the importance of compartmentation. Our fire safety experts have compiled a list of the top 10 compartmentation questions, along with detailed answers to make it easier than ever for you to stay compliant with your compartmentation responsibilities.
To gain further expert insight into understanding your building using fire safety strategies, including compartmentation, watch our latest webinar, ‘Fire Safety: Building Height, Compartmentation, and FRAEWs’, which is on demand now. 
Q1: What is the purpose of fire compartmentation?
A: Compartmentation is used for both tenant safety and property protection by subdividing buildings into areas that resist the effects of fire for specific time periods. This process helps prevent the rapid spread of smoke and fire, providing time for tenants to evacuate and for firefighters to extinguish the fire before it spreads to other areas of the building.
Q2: What is a Compartmentation Survey?
A: A Compartmentation Survey is a detailed assessment of the integrity of a building’s fire-resisting compartments, pinpointing any breaches or defects in walls, floors, and ceilings, as well as recommending actions to rectify such issues. These surveys offer a deeper insight into how effectively a building could withstand a fire and limit its spread for a defined period of time. They are often overlooked but can be one of the most effective methods of improving a building’s ability to withstand the effects of a fire and keep a building and its occupants safe.
Unsure whether your compartmentation is sufficient? Get in touch with our accredited and experienced fire safety experts, who will guide you through the Compartmentation Survey process.
Q3: Does a type four Fire Risk Assessment cover the same areas as a Compartmentation Survey?
A: A type four Fire Risk Assessment (FRA) involves assessing both common areas and a sample number of individual flats. Typically, in an FRA, a fire risk assessor and contractor will conduct destructive work to inspect areas such as voids around windows, the presence of cavity barriers on external walls, and voids above ceilings. This ensures that the separation in these areas meets the required standards. Whilst a type four FRA includes an intrusive examination of the overall building's fire safety, a Compartmentation Survey specifically focuses on the integrity of fire compartments within the building and, therefore, provides an in-depth analysis of just the building’s compartmentation.
Q4: Do contractors who create service penetrations know that they are stopping compartmentation? If so, what can organisations do?
A: Before allowing contractors to proceed with any work, it's crucial that you confirm they are producing Risk Assessment and Method Statements. Contractors should demonstrate their understanding of compartmentation requirements, and any work they undertake should be effectively fire-stopped by a third-party accredited, competent person.If you need help assessing whether your service penetrations have been accurately fire-stopped, get in touch with one of our fire safety experts.
Q5: We have a multi-use building (ground-floor commercial shop/first-floor residential dwelling). What are the compartmentation requirements for the landlord to comply with?
A: As these are two separate purpose groups, it is expected that there should be a minimum of 60 minutes of fire resistance between the ground floor shop and the first floor. It’s crucial that you ensure the compartmentation between the two purpose groups is maintained. You must also ensure the tenant of the ground floor shop has an FRA where the assessor has investigated the separation of surrounding buildings and the floors above.
Q6: Do the inside of flats require Compartmentation Surveys if they are sold on long leases?
A: There is an overlap of legislation regarding the internal area of a flat. The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 applies to the common parts of a multi-occupied residential building, which includes the common areas and flat entrance doors. However, the internal part of the flat falls under the Housing Act 2004, meaning, as the Responsible Person (RP), you may wish to undertake a type three FRA where the assessment will extend to inside the dwelling and provide a general assessment of risks.
Q7: What are some examples of hidden fire risks?
A: Breaches in walls, floors, and ceilings can greatly reduce the integrity of a fire-resisting compartment within a building. Such breaches can take many forms, including:- Voids created when installing new IT cables
- Defective cavity barriers that reduce the ability to slow down the spread of fire in hidden voids
- Excessive gaps around a fire door which will not offer the required fire resistance
A comprehensive Compartmentation Survey will identify such breaches and help you evaluate the measures needed to resolve these issues.
Q8: We have adequate compartmentation in the common areas but have noticed small penetrations (gas/water pipes passing from flat to flat) in individual flats. What are our next steps?
A: Firstly, you must quantify the number of breaches and the size of the breaches and investigate the material of the wall. This is critical information that will allow a suitably qualified fire-stopping company to resolve and firestop the issue. It is important to note that the holes may not necessarily breach a compartment wall or floor directly; they might run beneath a false floor surface instead. Many surfaces are hidden, so identifying whether the penetration goes through the compartment floor is vital. This aspect is addressed in a type four FRA within residential areas, where floorboards are lifted to identify the material used and its condition.
Q9: What is horizontal and vertical compartmentation?
A: When considering compartmentation, it is important to think both horizontally and vertically. Horizontal compartmentation prevents fire from spreading from room to room on the same floor. Conversely, vertical compartmentation stops the fire from spreading from one floor to another, restricting its potential spread through building elements such as ordinary stairs and lift shafts.
Q10: How much time resistance do I need from my compartmentation?
A: Your FRA will often recommend a specific duration of fire resistance, which can vary from 30 minutes to 120 minutes. The required duration of fire resistance is determined by the use and size of the building, meaning it will vary for each individual building. The level of fire hazard posed by the building dictates the necessary period of fire resistance: the higher the fire hazard, the longer the required duration of fire resistance.
If these questions have helped you identify any gaps within your fire safety compliance, or if you want to talk to our fire experts directly, get in touch here.
