Document review
I Have a Report and I Do Not Know What It Means
Deficiency lists, fire marshal notices and third-party survey reports are written for the people who wrote them. Send us what you have and a person will read it.
Free · No obligation · Available in all 50 states
The documents people usually arrive with
- Fire marshal or AHJ notice. Usually short, often cites code sections, and typically carries a correction deadline or a re-inspection date.
- Third-party barrier survey. Long, photo-heavy, location-coded, and frequently hundreds of line items. Common in healthcare and senior living.
- Insurance or risk-engineering report. Recommendations rather than citations, but often tied to coverage or premium conditions.
- Accreditation survey findings. In healthcare settings, life-safety findings come with their own correction timelines and evidence requirements.
- A contractor's proposal. Sometimes the first document an owner sees, and the hardest to evaluate without knowing what the underlying condition is.
How to read a deficiency list
Most reports, whatever the format, are answering four questions per line item:
- Where is it? A room number, corridor, grid reference or floor. If you cannot locate the item physically, nothing else about it can be acted on.
- What is the condition? An open penetration, an untreated joint, a damaged assembly, a missing or unlisted system.
- What assembly is affected? A one-hour corridor wall and a two-hour shaft are different problems even with an identical-looking opening.
- What is the required correction? Some reports specify it, many only describe the deficiency and leave the correction to whoever performs the work.
What usually needs prioritizing
Not every line item carries the same weight. Conditions in exit enclosures, shafts and corridors — the assemblies people rely on to get out of the building — typically get attention before conditions in less critical separations. Anything with a stated deadline sets the schedule regardless of technical priority.
What we do with a report you send us
A person reads it. We are deliberately not running your document through an automated system to generate a compliance opinion — that is exactly the kind of output that sounds authoritative and gets people into trouble.
What you get back is:
- A plain-language summary of what the report appears to be describing
- An indication of scope — isolated items versus a building-wide pattern
- What kind of contractor is appropriate for that scope
- What questions you should be asking before you accept a proposal
What you do not get is a code determination. We are not the authority having jurisdiction, we are not your design professional, and nothing we send you is a compliance ruling. The value we add is orientation and a qualified introduction — not a verdict.
Common questions
What file types can I upload?
PDFs and photographs. Most inspection reports arrive as PDFs; photographs of a posted notice or of the conditions themselves are equally useful.
Is my report reviewed by software or by a person?
By a person. We intentionally do not use automated interpretation to produce compliance opinions on inspection documents. The stakes are too high for a plausible-sounding automated answer.
Will you tell me whether I am in violation of code?
No. Only the authority having jurisdiction can make that determination for your building. We can help you understand what the report appears to be describing and what qualified help looks like.
What if I have a deadline in a few weeks?
Say so in the checkup. Timing changes which contractors are realistic candidates and how the introduction is prioritized.
Not sure what you are looking at?
Answer a few short questions and we will help identify the type of firestop issue you are dealing with and the next professional you may need.
Start the Free Firestop Checkup