Fire Stopping Survey: Find Every Gap, Get a Priced List to Fix It

What does a fire stopping survey actually check?

Anywhere something passes through a fire-resisting wall or floor, and anywhere the barrier itself stops short.

• Cables, pipes, trunking and ducts passing through walls and floors, and what has been used to seal round them
• Riser cupboards and service shafts, including whether the floor of each riser is closed at every level
• The gap between the top of a fire wall and the slab above, which is often hidden above a suspended ceiling
• Cavity barriers and fire-resisting ceiling boards, looking for missing sections and damaged joints
• Linear gaps at the head and edges of fire walls, and where walls meet the external wall
• Doors and frames in the compartment line, because a wall can be perfect and still fail at the door

Most breaches are not from the original build. They come from later work: a data cable pulled through in 2019, a new extractor, a pipe replaced and the old collar not refitted. That is why a building with a good original specification can still fail a survey.

How we run a survey, step by step

The same sequence on every job, so the report reads the same whether the building has 20 locations or 400.

1. 1Drawings first. We ask for the fire strategy and floor plans. If there are none, we mark up a floor plan on site and say so in the report.
2. 2Walk the compartment lines. We follow each fire wall and floor, open the access panels and ceiling tiles that can be opened without damage, and record what we find.
3. 3One record per location. Each breach gets a number, a plan reference, a photo of the gap and a photo of the wider context, and a note of what it passes through and what it is made of.
4. 4Rank by risk. Open breaches in escape routes and between sleeping areas come first. Small gaps in plant rooms go lower.
5. 5Defect schedule you can price. The list says what is needed to seal each location, so the remedial cost comes from the real count, not a guess for the whole building.

A non-intrusive survey covers what can be seen without opening anything up. Where the barrier is hidden behind boxing, plasterboard or a sealed ceiling, an intrusive survey is needed and we agree the opening-up points with you first. Our compartmentation surveys page covers the intrusive level in detail.

What we find: our own survey figures

Two surveys, 407 locations, 371 needing fire stopping.

Two surveys is a small sample, so treat it as a guide and not a benchmark. We add to it as more are completed. The full write-up is on what a compartmentation survey finds. Client names are left out.

Who needs a fire stopping survey?

The responsible person for the building, which in practice means the landlord, employer, managing agent or owner.

The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 requires the responsible person to keep fire protection in good order. You cannot do that without knowing where the breaches are. These are the usual triggers:

• A fire risk assessment says compartmentation was only checked where it could be seen
• Cabling, M&E or fit-out work has been done and nobody reinstated the fire stopping
• A change of use, such as offices converted to flats or a house to an HMO
• Buying, refinancing or insuring a building and being asked for evidence of fire separation
• Handover on a new build or refurbishment, where the principal contractor needs a clean record
• Flats and mixed-use blocks, where a breach in one flat's wall is a risk to every neighbour

What happens after the survey?

You choose who does the sealing. We price it from the list, and you can send the list to anyone else for a comparison.

Where we do the work, the sealing is carried out by our FIRAS-certificated contractors using tested products fitted to the manufacturer's method. Each seal is photographed and recorded, and the third-party certificate goes in your fire safety file. More on the fire stopping service.

A survey costs less than people expect because it is a day or two of an engineer's time, scaled by floor area and number of risers. We confirm a price from your drawings or photos before anyone visits. The remedial price is separate and depends on how many locations need sealing and what they are made of, so we give it only once the list exists.

Fire stopping survey, compartmentation survey, fire risk assessment: which one?

They overlap, but they answer different questions.

A fire risk assessment does not replace a fire door inspection or a fire stopping survey, and neither replaces the assessment. They sit side by side.

Sources

• Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 (legislation.gov.uk)
• Approved Document B: Fire safety (GOV.UK)
• Fire Safety Act 2021 (legislation.gov.uk)

Updated October 2026 by Sebastian Grabowski, DC Fire & Security, 2 Winsdon Court, Luton LU1 5LZ.