The problem it solves
A building owner asks for a compartmentation survey. The surveyor asks for the fire strategy and the compartmentation drawings. There are none, or they are twenty years old and three refurbishments out of date.
At that point the project usually does one of two things, both bad. It surveys anyway, against assumed compartment lines, and produces a register that cannot actually be relied on. Or it stops, and the owner goes looking for a fire engineer, gets a fee proposal, and the whole thing stalls for six months.
The Compliance Pathway is a single route through all four stages, with one contractor accountable for the handover at the end.
The four stages
One — establish the strategy and the drawings. Working with your architect and fire engineer, or introducing an independent one where you do not have one, we establish the current fire strategy and produce up-to-date compartmentation drawings showing where every compartment line, protected route and fire-resisting element is supposed to be. This is the stage everyone skips, and it is the stage that makes everything after it defensible.
Two — survey against those drawings. Doorsets to BS 8214 and the FDIS methodology; compartmentation, fire stopping and barriers against the drawn lines. Every asset photographed, QR-tagged and plotted at its actual location. The output is a prioritised, costed schedule banded by risk.
Three — certified remedial and installation works. Fire door installation under Q-Mark scheme 052, fire door maintenance and repair under 058, fire stopping installation under 05B — by competency-assessed operatives, to tested details, with each asset labelled and registered on completion.
Four — digital register handover. The whole estate handed over in Onetrace: every doorset and every seal as a live asset with its history, accessible to you, your FM team, your fire risk assessor and any future contractor.
Why this is what the Building Safety Act asks for
The Building Safety Act 2022 introduced the concept of the Golden Thread: the information about a building and its fire and structural safety that must be created, kept current, and available to the people who need it, in a form that can be handed on.
It is not a document. It is a living, accurate, accessible record — and the duty to hold one does not disappear because the original drawings were lost. For higher-risk buildings the duty is explicit. For everything else, the same expectation is arriving through insurers, lenders, purchasers and fire risk assessors who now ask for evidence rather than assurance.
A PDF survey report issued in 2023 is not a Golden Thread. A register in which every asset carries its photographs, its specification and every intervention since, updated each time somebody touches it, is.
Who it is for
Building owners and freeholders who need to establish a defensible compliance position across an asset rather than react to individual findings.
Facilities and property managers inheriting a building with incomplete records, or taking on a new contract where the previous position cannot be verified.
Developers and main contractors who need Regulation 38 fire safety information to hand over at practical completion in a form the client can actually use.
Housing providers working through Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 duties across a stock of buildings.
The deliverable, every time
Current compartmentation drawings — The compartment lines, protected routes and fire-resisting elements as they are supposed to be — the reference everything else depends on.
A complete asset register — Every doorset and every seal photographed, QR-tagged, located and specified.
Certified works records — Scheme-referenced records for every installation, repair and seal, under 052, 058 and 05B.
A live Golden Thread — Held in Onetrace, updated by every future intervention, and yours to hand on.
From enquiry to certification
Enquiry
Tell us about the building and the works you need.
Site survey
Every asset inspected, photographed and QR-tagged.
Specification
Clear scope and pricing against tested systems.
Certified works
Competency-assessed operatives under scheme control.
Evidence pack
Photos, registers and product data for every asset.
Certification
Q-Mark labelled, registered and traceable for life.
Answered by the people who do the work
More on the full FAQ page.
Do you employ the fire engineer and architect yourselves?
No. We work alongside your existing architect and fire engineer where you have them, and introduce an independent practice where you do not. Keeping the strategy and the works with separate parties is better practice, not a limitation — the person who defines the compartment line should not be the only person checking whether it was built.
Can we start at stage two or three?
Yes, and many clients do. If you already hold current fire strategy and compartmentation drawings you have done the expensive part. The Pathway is a route, not a package you have to buy whole.
How is it priced?
Each stage is priced separately and discretely, so you can stop after any of them and still hold something useful. We will not price stage three before stage two has told us what is actually there.
How long does it take?
The drawing stage is usually the longest and depends on building size, available record information and your fire engineer's programme. Survey and works follow at a pace set by access. We give an indicative programme after a first look at the building, and a firm one after stage one.
What exactly do we hold at the end?
Current compartmentation drawings and fire strategy; a complete asset register with photographs and specifications for every doorset and seal; certification records for the works carried out under each Q-Mark scheme; and live access to all of it in Onetrace.
Tell us about the building.
Send over what you have — a drawing, an old report, or just a description — and we will come back with a scope and a fixed price. Call 020 8769 8869.
Ask about the Compliance Pathway
Send us the details and anything you already have — drawings, an old survey or photos. We will be in touch within one working day.
- BM TRADA Q-Mark certified, certificate 4515
- Named Approved Persons accountable for the work
- Every asset photographed and recorded
Prefer to talk? Call 020 8769 8869 (Mon–Fri 07:30–17:30) or email fire@arcticltd.com.