Fire alarm deficiency corrections
A deficiency notice has a date on it. Start with the list.
If a fire inspector or a testing company has written up fire alarm deficiencies in your building, send us the list and the correction date. Correcting a deficiency does not have to be done by whoever found it, and we work on systems other companies installed.
This page covers fire alarm items. We do not install or service sprinklers, suppression systems or extinguishers.
Read the notice
Four things on the notice decide what happens next.
Read it once for these before you call anyone. They are also what we will ask you for.
- The items
- Each deficiency, usually with the device or the place it was found. These are what gets corrected, one at a time, and what gets checked afterwards.
- The date
- When the corrections are due. It belongs to whoever wrote the notice, not to us, so send it with the list.
- How it closes
- Some notices close with a reinspection and some with documentation that the work was done. The notice, or the office that issued it, will say which.
- Who issued it
- A fire authority, a testing company or another inspector. It matters for how the notice closes. It does not decide whether we can do the work.
Our part of the list
Fire alarm items are ours. Some items on the same notice are not.
Fire alarm deficiencies we correct
- Devices that failed their test: smoke detectors, heat detectors, manual pull stations, horns and strobes.
- A standby battery that will not hold, and the trouble condition it puts the panel in.
- A circuit reading a fault, a loose termination, or a device the panel is not seeing.
- Panel problems the test turned up.
Items that go to another trade
Sprinklers, suppression systems and extinguishers. We do not install or service them, so those items go to the company that does. When you send the list, say which items you think are fire alarm, and we will tell you if any of them are not.
Someone else wrote it up
The inspector who found it does not have to be the one who fixes it.
Each item is checked on site before it is corrected, because the fix depends on what is actually there. Sometimes it depends on the panel too: what can be changed on a particular panel depends on the equipment and on access to the manufacturer's software and training. Tell us the panel make and model and we will tell you plainly if it is something we cannot take on.
If an item cannot be corrected on the existing panel, that becomes a different conversation, about replacing the panel.
The correction date
The date is the notice's. Planning around it is ours.
Send the date with the list, so the work is planned around it. If it is close, say so when you call rather than in a note at the bottom of a form.
If a date cannot be met, the office or inspector that issued the notice is the one to ask about it. That conversation is between you and them, and it goes better with the work already booked.
Where we work
Deficiency corrections across Monterey, Santa Cruz and San Benito counties, plus southern Santa Clara County. Which office wrote your notice depends on where the building is: service areas and fire authorities.
Send the deficiency list
Copy the items as written, and give us the date.
The wording on the notice, the device locations it names and the correction date are usually enough to tell you what the work involves. If you know the panel make and model, include it.
Prefer to talk?
(831) 455-5858Phones are answered from 8am to 6pm. If the correction date is close, call rather than write.