How to check a fire engineering report against the drawings

TL;DR: To check a fire engineering report (FER) against the drawings, list every requirement in the report in a register with its clause reference, find the sheet, schedule or specification section that should show each one, and mark it as shown, missing or conflicting. Then run the same register again every time the drawings or the FER are revised. The mismatches that cost the most are usually fire door ratings in the door schedule, openings the report says need protection, detection and occupant warning coverage, and the location of fire indicator panels.

What a fire engineering report sets out

A fire engineering report documents the Performance Solutions for a building: the parts of the design that meet the National Construction Code performance requirements through engineered analysis. It also lists the conditions those solutions depend on. Typical conditions include:

• fire resistance levels (FRLs) for walls, doors, shafts and structure
• extended travel distances that rely on sprinklers or smoke detection
• detection, occupant warning and fire indicator panel locations
• fire hydrant, sprinkler and hose reel arrangements
• smoke compartments, smoke doors and smoke exhaust
• management and maintenance obligations for the building owner

Every one of those conditions has to appear somewhere in the documents the builder prices and builds from. When one doesn't, the Performance Solution the approval relied on is no longer what gets built.

The mismatches to look for first

From the reports we see checked against live drawing sets, these come up again and again:

1. Door FRLs in the door schedule. A door scheduled at -/60/- where the FER requires -/120/- is a common catch. The FRL format is structural adequacy / integrity / insulation in minutes, and a dash means no requirement for that criterion.
2. Openings that need protection. Windows near boundaries or between fire compartments that the FER says need protection, and that never made it into the window schedule.
3. Detection and occupant warning coverage. Areas the FER says need coverage, such as roof plant areas, with no devices shown on the services layouts.
4. Fire indicator panels. The FER calls for a secondary fire indicator panel and the electrical layout shows a mimic panel in that position.
5. Late design changes. A revision that moves a wall or removes a door after the FER was issued, with nobody re-reading the FER against the new sheet.

How to check it by hand

1. Build the register. Read the FER end to end and write down every requirement, condition and assumption as its own line, with the FER clause or section number. Include the ones written in prose, which are the easiest to miss.
2. Assign each line to a document. For each requirement, name the drawing, schedule or specification section that should show it: the door schedule for FRLs, the fire services layout for hydrants, the electrical layout for detection.
3. Check each line. Mark it as shown, missing, or conflicting, and record the sheet number and revision you checked.
4. Raise the gaps. Missing and conflicting items become RFIs to the architect, the fire engineer or the services consultant, each citing the FER clause and the sheet.
5. Recheck on every revision. When the drawings or the FER are reissued, run the register again against the new revision and note what changed.

On a mid-size job, a careful first pass takes an experienced person a day or more, which is why it often gets a skim under tender pressure.

Doing it with software

CIM Build's report compliance check reads the FER and the full drawing set together and returns each finding cited to the FER clause and the sheet. On a recent residential job it found a fire door scheduled at -/60/- against a required -/120/-, and 5 windows on one level that were missing from the window schedule. On a high-rise job it found a mimic panel drawn where the FER required a secondary fire indicator panel. The team reviews each finding against the source before anything goes to a consultant, and the check runs again on every revision.

Frequently asked questions

What does an FRL of -/120/- mean?

An FRL lists three criteria in minutes: structural adequacy, integrity and insulation. -/120/- means no structural adequacy requirement, 120 minutes of integrity, and no insulation requirement. Fire doors are tested to AS 1530.4 and installed to AS 1905.1.

Who makes sure the drawings match the fire engineering report?

The fire engineer writes the report and the architect and services consultants are meant to carry its requirements into their documents. Under a design and construct contract, coordinating those documents usually sits with the builder's design team, so check the design obligations in your contract.

How often should the fire engineering report be checked against the drawings?

Check it at tender, again when the construction set is issued, and every time either the drawings or the FER are revised. Most mismatches arrive with a revision.

Can ChatGPT check a fire engineering report against drawings?

ChatGPT can summarise an FER you upload and answer questions about it. Cross-checking a full drawing set sheet by sheet, and rerunning the check on every revision, needs a tool that reads the report and the set together and cites the sheet for each finding.