A Common Inspection Scenario
You were informed that you need to provide Flame Certificates for your brand-new Holiday decorations and existing draperies….
- Where are the original Certificates?
- Which vendor should you call?
- Are the Certificates expired, or can they be reissued?
- Are other locations about to expire and create a new problem?
- What happens if any of the above fails, and how can you fix it… quickly?
Decorations, furnishings, finished surfaces (i.e. fabric walls), window treatments, etc. must all pass their specific test criteria.
For the designer, architect, or business owner, the overwhelming amount of paperwork poses a substantial problem when a Fire Code compliance review is requested.
For the Fire Prevention team, receiving the proper paperwork is of primary importance in signing-off.
A Common Problem
Documentation may (or may not) be provided with each finished product from the manufacturer, designer, upholsterer/fabricator, flame retardant/inter-liner company, testing facility, or Fire Prevention team. Typically a number of groups are involved before the final product is received at the end-user’s site, and it is rare for all pertinent documents to be readily available.
To add to the confusion:
- Multiple locations – do record keeping practices differ from site-to-site? Organizational skills and efforts?
- Forgotten/Missed renewal deadlines – what is expired, impending, or still valid?
- Identifying the correct vendor or provider – who may (or may not) have kept any records?
- Fines and impact on licensing and/or business permits – how much could a fine or down time cost?
- Personnel turnover – which records were lost in transition from former to new management?
CODEpliance decided to create a better way to manage the compliance documentation process.