Life Safety and Fire Protection
ABS also has experience assessing the adequacy and integrity of the life safety components in buildings. Stairs, handrails, doors, corridors, fire walls… Are they designed properly? Do they meet applicable codes? Do your walls have the appropriate fire or smoke rating? Do you have the appropriate number of exits? The answers to these questions and others as they relate to building and occupant health, safety and welfare can be answered by our architects and our fire protection engineer.
Our architects and engineers provide a working knowledge of fire suppression and alarm systems and the principles of building construction as they relate to fire protection. This includes:
- Water based fire suppression
- Wet-pipe sprinkler systems
- Dry-pipe sprinkler systems
- Pre-action sprinkler systems
- Special hazards systems
- Clean agent, gaseous fire extinguishing systems
- Low expansion aqueous film forming foam (AFFF) extinguishing systems
- High expansion foam fire extinguishing systems
- Fire alarm systems
- Principles of building construction
- Accessibility (Americans with Disabilities Act and the Architectural Barriers Act)
- Construction types
- Construction materials
- Interior finish
- Structural fire resistance
- Compartmentalization
- Protection of vertical and horizontal openings
- Water supplies and water distribution systems
ABS has extensive experience investigating pedestrian slips, trips, and falls. Our staff of registered design professionals routinely conducts comprehensive investigations of walking and working surfaces, stairs, ramps and parking lots. These investigations may include:
- A thorough review of the requirements for the surface as prescribed by the building code, code referenced design standards such as ICC/ANSI A117.1, and other industry standards where applicable.
- An on-site investigation and survey of the actual surface or building element. This usually includes precise measurements of physical dimensions of uneven walking surfaces, ramps, stairs, and other changes in level.
- An investigation of the surrounding building elements and components such as hand rails, guard rails, barriers or impediments to walking, and the adequacy of lighting.
- Using a calibrated variable incidence tribometer, our investigation may also include measurement of the static coefficient of friction of dry surfaces or measurements of the slip resistance of wet or contaminated surfaces.