Fire board encasement
Boarding structural steel to achieve a fire resistance period is a trade where the finished article hides everything that matters. Once the last board is on, nobody can see the number of layers, whether joints were staggered, what fixings were used or at what centres.
The record therefore has to carry the element being protected, the board system and its thickness, the number of layers, the fixing type and centres, whether joints are staggered and how they are treated, and photographs at each layer rather than only at the end. In Assaya, board encasement is one of the trades with its own capture fields for exactly those items.
The industry guidance is ASFP Technical Guidance Document 14, a code of practice for the installation and inspection of board systems protecting structural steelwork, alongside the ASFP Yellow Book on fire protection for structural steel. Board systems are assessed by test under the BS EN 13381 series. The legal requirement behind all of it is B3 of Schedule 1 to the Building Regulations 2010, with Approved Document B as statutory guidance.
Edge of slab and perimeter firestop
The gap between a floor slab and the back of a facade is one of the least understood details in the building, and one of the most commonly evidenced with the wrong test data.
The point worth knowing: ASFP Advisory Note 7 recommends BS EN 1364-4 as the test standard for curtain wall perimeter barriers, and states that evidence to BS EN 1366-4 - the linear joint seal standard - cannot support that end use application. The two get confused constantly, because a perimeter barrier looks like a linear joint and is not one. The CWCT technical note on the subject has been moving the same way. If a product data sheet offered for a slab edge quotes EN 1366-4, that is a question worth asking before it goes in, not after.
The record needs the slab edge condition, the facade type behind, the dimension of the gap as found, the system installed and the evidence it was assessed under, and photographs along the run before the facade closes it off forever. Edge of slab is recorded in Assaya with its own work types for slab edge firestop and slab-to-facade perimeter seals.
Cavity barriers
Cavity barriers have the hardest evidence problem in passive fire protection: the entire point of a cavity is that it gets closed up. Every source will tell you to photograph each barrier before the void is sealed. Almost none of them tell you how to do it so the photograph still means something a year later.
What makes a cavity barrier record work is the same thing that makes any of them work - the barrier has to be findable again. A run of horizontal barrier photographed against a plasterboard wall is indistinguishable from any other run of horizontal barrier. Pinned to its position on the drawing, with the run identified, the product recorded, and the photograph carrying its own reference and capture time, it is evidence.
Assaya records cavity barriers with work types for horizontal and vertical runs, open state cavity barriers and cavity socks or party wall barriers, plus survey and inspection. The requirement is B3 again, with Approved Document B giving the guidance - including the minimum performance expected of a cavity barrier - and ASFP TGD 17 covering the installation and inspection of linear joint seals, penetration seals and small cavity barriers. Remember that Approved Document B is guidance on meeting the requirement, not the requirement itself.
Fire and smoke curtains, and fire shutters
These two get conflated more than any other pair in the trade, including by the people buying them. A fire curtain is a flexible barrier that descends; a fire shutter is a rated door assembly. They are tested and certified under different regimes and they fail in different ways.
Fire and smoke curtains sit under BS 8524: part 1 specifies active fire curtain barrier assemblies, part 2 is the code of practice for application, installation and maintenance, and it includes an inspection checklist covering, among other things, descent with the power disconnected. That last point is the one most often skipped on site, and it is precisely the kind of check that is worth having in a record with a photograph and a date against it.
Fire shutters are covered by BS EN 16034, used together with the product standard BS EN 13241, with fire testing to BS EN 1634-1. Worth knowing for the record-keeping argument: BS EN 12635 covers installation and use of industrial and commercial doors and includes the requirement for a log book. A shutter with no maintained log book is a compliance gap regardless of how well it drops.
In Assaya both are recorded with their own work types - install, drop test or service, repair, survey - so a drop test carried out in March is a dated record with its result and photographs, not a line in a service engineer's notebook.
Fire-rated glazing and fire windows
Fire resisting glazing fails at the perimeter far more often than in the glass. The beads, the seals, the frame fixings and the intumescent tape are the parts that decide whether the tested system was actually reproduced on site, and they are the parts covered up on completion.
Fixed glazed screens are tested under BS EN 1364-1, and openable windows and doorsets under BS EN 1634-1. A great deal of UK evidence still references the legacy standard BS 476-22, which is worth recognising when you are handed an old data sheet. Products carry a Declaration of Performance, and the classification will be expressed as E, EW or EI with a period - integrity alone, integrity with radiation limits, or integrity with insulation. Those are not interchangeable, and a screen specified as EI that was installed as E is a defect that looks like nothing.
The record wants the system and its classification, the perimeter detail and sealing method actually used, and photographs of the perimeter before the beads go on. Assaya records fire windows and glazing with work types for install, glazed screens, fire-rated glazing replacement and perimeter seals and beads.
Fire-rated ceilings and membranes
A fire-rated ceiling is doing one of two quite different jobs, and the record should say which. Either it is an element with its own fire resistance, tested under BS EN 1364-2, or it is a horizontal protective membrane contributing to the fire resistance of the structure above it, assessed under BS EN 13381-1, which applies where there is a gap and cavity between the membrane and the structural member.
In practice the things that undo a rated ceiling are access hatches, light fittings and later penetrations by other trades. Recording the ceiling as installed, and recording every hatch and penetration through it, is what makes it possible to tell later whether the rating survived the fit-out. Assaya carries work types for rated suspended ceilings, membrane protection, fire-rated access hatches and reinstatement.
Why one register rather than seven
Every trade above has its own standard and its own fields, but they are all in the same buildings, usually on the same drawings, frequently carried by the same firms. Splitting them across separate tools, spreadsheets and photo folders is how a handover pack ends up being assembled by hand in the last fortnight of a contract.
Assaya covers twelve fire protection trades against one set of drawings, and each is a switch in your console - on or off per company, so a firm that only carries three sees an app with three. Fire stopping, fire doors, fire dampers, intumescent coating and fire board encasement each have their own bespoke capture fields; cavity barriers, edge of slab, fire windows and glazing, fire and smoke curtains, fire shutters, fire-rated ceilings and extinguishers are recorded on the common register with their own work types. Every record, whichever trade, carries the pin on the drawing, the photographs, the operative, the date and a tamper-evident history.
The whole price list is published, with no per-pin, per-drawing or per-record charge, and client observers are free.
See fire-stopping records captured on site, pinned to the drawing and locked to a tamper-evident history - with the whole price list published and no demo to sit through first.
What is the difference between a fire curtain and a fire shutter?
A fire curtain is a flexible barrier assembly that descends to form a fire or smoke barrier, covered by BS 8524 parts 1 and 2. A fire shutter is a rated door assembly, covered by BS EN 16034 used with the product standard BS EN 13241 and tested to BS EN 1634-1. They are certified under different regimes, maintained differently and fail differently, so the record should never treat them as the same thing.
Why can't BS EN 1366-4 evidence be used for a slab edge perimeter barrier?
Because a curtain wall perimeter barrier is not a linear joint seal, even though it looks like one. ASFP Advisory Note 7 recommends BS EN 1364-4 as the test standard for perimeter barriers and states that EN 1366-4 evidence cannot support that end use application. If a data sheet offered for a slab edge quotes EN 1366-4, ask the question before the system goes in.
How do I evidence a cavity barrier once the void is closed?
You cannot, which is why the photograph has to be taken before it closes and has to be tied to a findable location. A photograph of a barrier against a blank wall proves nothing later. Pin the barrier to its position on the drawing, identify the run, record the product, and use photographs that carry their own reference and capture time so they still mean something after being exported into somebody else's report.
What does E, EW and EI mean on fire-rated glazing?
They are classifications of performance. E is integrity alone, EW is integrity with limited radiation, EI is integrity with insulation. They are not interchangeable, and a screen specified as EI but installed as E is a defect that is invisible on site. The classification and period should be on the record along with the perimeter detail actually used.
Which of these trades does Assaya cover?
All of them, plus fire stopping, fire doors, fire dampers and extinguishers - twelve in total, each a switch you turn on or off per company. Fire stopping, doors, dampers, intumescent coating and board encasement have their own bespoke capture fields. Cavity barriers, edge of slab, windows and glazing, curtains, shutters, fire-rated ceilings and extinguishers are recorded on the common register with their own work types.
Do I have to buy all twelve trades?
No. Trades are switches in your console, on or off per company, and the price does not change with how many you turn on. The whole price list is published at assaya.co.uk/pricing.html, and there is no per-pin, per-drawing or per-record charge.
This page is general information about record-keeping for specialist passive fire protection trades, not fire engineering advice. Standards are cited to help you ask the right question; confirm the requirements for a specific installation with a competent person and the manufacturer's certified data.