There is a short window every summer when schools sit quiet and offices tick over on skeleton staff. It closes quickly. By the first week of September, corridors fill up, meeting rooms are booked solid and the fire alarm system that nobody has thought about since Easter is suddenly protecting hundreds of people again. If a fault is going to show itself, that is when it tends to happen, usually as a nuisance alarm during a busy morning or a panel fault light that nobody on site can explain.
The good news is that August is the ideal month to get ahead of it. Buildings are accessible, disruption is minimal and there is still time to put anything right before term starts. In this guide, we cover what BS 5839 actually asks of you, the faults we most often find after the summer break, and how to arrange professional fire alarm servicing for your Wigan or Chorley premises before the September rush.
In short
BS 5839 recommends a professional fire alarm service at least every six months, with every device on the system tested across a twelve month period and a weekly test logged on site. For schools and offices in Wigan, booking the visit in August keeps you compliant and keeps engineers out of the building once term begins.
How often should a fire alarm be serviced? BS 5839 explained
BS 5839-1 is the British Standard that covers fire detection and alarm systems in non-domestic buildings, and it is the benchmark that fire risk assessors, insurers and enforcing authorities all work to. On maintenance, its recommendation is clear: your system should be inspected and serviced by a competent person at intervals of no more than six months. For most schools and offices, that means two engineer visits a year.
Every 6 months
A professional inspection and service by a competent engineer.
Every 12 months
Every device on the system tested, split across your service visits.
Every week
An on-site test from a manual call point, recorded in the log book.
The standard also expects every device on the system, including each detector and manual call point, to be tested over the course of a twelve month period, with the work typically split across those service visits. On top of that, someone on site should carry out a weekly test of the system using a manual call point and record the result in the log book.
For schools in particular, the six month cycle fits the calendar neatly. A service in August and another around February keeps you inside the recommended interval and keeps engineers out of the building while pupils are in it.
The common faults we find before term starts
A building does not need to be busy for its fire alarm to deteriorate. In fact, summer is often when problems creep in. These are the faults our engineers pick up most often on pre-September visits:
Tired standby batteries
The batteries in the panel keep the system running through a power cut. They degrade quietly and summer heat speeds that up. A failed battery often only announces itself as a fault warning weeks later.
Dust in detectors from summer works
Decorating, flooring and building work fill the air with fine dust that settles inside smoke detector chambers. The result is the classic September nuisance alarm, which soon teaches staff to ignore the sounders.
Detectors still covered up
Contractors cap detectors to protect them while they work. Those covers are easily forgotten, leaving whole rooms without detection.
Damaged or painted-over call points
A refreshed corridor sometimes comes with a manual call point that has been splashed, sealed or boxed in.
Isolated zones that were never restored
Parts of a system are often disabled during works to stop false alarms. If nobody re-enables them, the panel may be quietly ignoring a chunk of the building.
A log book with a long gap in it
Not a fault in the system, but the first thing a fire officer or insurer will ask to see, and a summer of missed weekly tests is hard to explain away.
Why your insurer and the Fire Safety Order expect it
Servicing is not just good practice. Under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, the responsible person for any non-domestic premises, which usually means the employer, head teacher, business owner or managing agent, must ensure that fire safety systems are maintained in efficient working order and in good repair. A system that has not been serviced is very difficult to defend as properly maintained.
The consequences are real
Fire and rescue authorities can issue enforcement notices, and serious breaches can lead to prosecution and unlimited fines. Insurers take a similar line: many commercial policies require the fire alarm to be maintained in line with BS 5839, and a missing service history can complicate or undermine a claim at exactly the wrong moment.
Your fire risk assessment will almost certainly reference the alarm system too. Keeping the servicing up to date is one of the simplest ways to keep that assessment, your insurer and the enforcing authority all satisfied at once.
What happens during a fire alarm service visit
A proper service visit is more than a quick look at the panel. When PW Electrical services a system in a school or office, our NICEIC approved engineers work through the checks BS 5839 recommends, including:
- Inspecting the control panel, checking the event log and investigating any recorded faults
- Testing standby batteries and the changeover to backup power
- Testing a proportion of detectors and manual call points, so that every device is covered across the year
- Checking sounders and confirming alarm levels are audible throughout the building
- Checking any links to remote monitoring, door holders or other connected equipment
- Updating the log book and issuing a service certificate for your compliance records
We time the noisy parts sensibly, service out of hours where needed, and flag anything that needs attention with a clear written recommendation rather than a vague warning. Schools and offices are two of the sectors we work in week in, week out, so we know how to service a live building without turning it upside down.
Service contract or ad hoc call-outs?
Plenty of premises in Wigan run their fire alarm maintenance on an ad hoc basis, booking a visit when someone remembers or when a fault forces the issue. It works, until it does not. Intervals stretch past six months, paperwork ends up scattered, and a fault in December means joining the queue with everyone else.
Ad hoc call-outs
- Booked only when someone remembers
- Intervals easily stretch past six months
- Certificates scattered or missing
- You join the queue when a fault hits
Maintenance contract
- Six-monthly visits scheduled automatically
- Timed around term dates or business hours
- A certificate issued after every visit
- A local team that already knows your system
A fire alarm maintenance contract solves those problems for a predictable cost. Your six-monthly visits are scheduled automatically around your term dates or business hours, certificates are issued after every visit, and if something does go wrong between services you have a local team on the end of the phone that already knows your system. Because we handle commercial and domestic electrical work across the area, the same visit can often pick up other jobs on your list, from emergency lighting checks to extra sockets in a refurbished classroom.
Book your fire alarm service before September
Late August is the sweet spot. The building is quiet, our diary still has space, and any remedial work can be finished before staff and pupils walk back through the door. Leave it until mid-September and you are fitting engineers around a full building, with every other school and office trying to do the same.
PW Electrical provides fire alarm servicing across Wigan and Chorley, from single-panel offices to multi-zone school systems. We are NICEIC approved, fully insured, and happy to quote for a one-off pre-term service or a full maintenance contract.
Call us on 01257 402 004 to book your pre-September fire alarm service, or get in touch through the website for a free, no-obligation quote. A couple of hours in August is all it takes to walk into September knowing the system behind your people is ready for them.
Book a pre-September fire alarm service
NICEIC approved, fully insured, and servicing commercial premises across Wigan and Chorley. Tell us your term dates and we will work around them.
