Steps to bid out your fire alarm project
Steps when bidding out a fire alarm system
Hire an Electrical Engineer to design the Fire Alarm System to code, come up with a scope of work and specifications as well as plans. Later after you hire an alarm contractor these plans will have to pass a fire marshal review and often a 3rd party review to make sure it meets code. There is a permit and the fee varies per city. Understand that there is a waiting time while the drawings are being done and a time period for review and this will extend the time it takes to get the project done. Example, currently Salt Lake City plan review is out about 4 to 6 weeks depending on the project.
If you have hired a general contractor they will get bids from the electrical contractors and fire alarm contractors for your new fire alarm installation.
Once an alarm contractor is hired, drawings will be turned into the 3rd Party reviewer or directly to the Fire Marshal depending on the city, permit fee will be paid and once the reviews are done and the drawings are approved equipment can be ordered and the job can be scheduled.
If you hire a fire alarm contractor directly they can take care of this. Many Alarm companies are not licensed to do high voltage work so you can either hire an electrical contractor directly to do any high voltage work like getting 20amp dedicated circuits to the fire panel and to the remote horn/strobe power supplies or you can have your alarm company sub that portion out.
When you have a set of plans in PDF or CAD or even a building drawing this will help in the process. The Fire Marshal will require submittals and that will include datasheets, battery calculations and CAD drawings. If we have to convert PDF to CAD we can do it but when you have the CAD it will cost less. If you don’t have drawings we can come out and measure the building and do a drawing once we have been contracted.
To get your occupancy you will not only need a functional fire alarm but you will also need the system monitored via a UL listed Monitoring Central Station. Peak Alarm owns their own UL listed Central Station so we can help with that. Monitoring prices vary depending if we monitor using 2 analog phone lines, radio or advanced high supervision cellular.
If you have a daycare, assisted living center, public building or any other facility governed by the State Fire Marshal’s office there are additional code requirements so make sure you check those out before having your system installed.
Please call Larry.Love@JCI.com cell (801) 898 6003 with any questions or when you need a bid for fire alarm.