Services - Facility Risk Solutions Ltd.

Code Compliance

The acceptable solutions found in prescriptive-based Codes often fall short where innovative designs are applied or existing building constraints exist, so we develop alternative solutions that meet or exceed the applicable objectives and functional statements of the Code and satisfy the authority having jurisdiction.

Our Code Compliance Services include:

Fire Compliance Order Review – Our fire compliance consultant services focus on reviewing fire compliance orders and providing expert advisory support. Additionally, we liaise with fire authorities and provide ongoing support to ensure your facility meets all fire safety regulations
Code Consulting and Life Safety Reviews – A full range of building and fire code consulting services for property managers, building owners and architects including detailed assessments to ensure compliance with Ontario Fire Code, Subsection 9.1.4.1.(1).
Alternative Solutions Reviews – We tailor our recommendations to fit specific needs and characteristics of your facility with the aim to reduce the overall capital expenditure needed to obtain compliance and ensure safety
Vulnerable Occupancy Support – Our services support vulnerable occupancy fire drills and required inspections, ensuring safety and compliance. We develop tailored fire drill plans, facilitate drills, model egress dynamics, recommend egress enhancements, and maintain compliance documentation. Additionally, we provide staff training and continuous support to enhance fire safety procedures and ensure the well-being of all occupants.
Fire Safety Plans – Our Fire Safety Plan preparation service ensures full compliance with the Ontario Fire Code, particularly focusing on Section 2.8, which mandates comprehensive Emergency Planning. We provide thorough building schematics and site plans with tailored evacuation strategies, and compile detailed documentation in line with Section 2.8 requirements. Our service includes creating emergency protocols, assigning responsibilities, and outlining procedures for various fire scenarios. Partnering with us guarantees that your fire safety measures are robust, compliant, and effective, providing peace of mind and enhanced safety for your facility.

Asset Management and Preventative Maintenance

Asset management and preventative maintenance planning is an ongoing and long-term process that allows building owners to make the best possible investment decisions for their infrastructure assets, (including planning for their asset retirement obligations) and is the foundation of a fiscally sustainable future.

Our Asset Management and Preventative Maintenance Services include:

Building Condition Assessments – Our assessments, at minimum, identify compliance with life safety, building code and accessibility code, energy consumption, and environmentally hazardous products. We will also log building appearance, integrity, and functionality, and establish consequences of failures of individual building elements. A range of potential corrective actions will be provided including percentage of element replacement and associated costs.
Asset Inventories and Virtual Asset Tagging – Through our data driven approach and access to unique LiDAR scanning technology we are able to identify critical building elements and develop Asset Tags with unique identifiers for each of your facilities and work to flag those elements within interactive virtual tours, ensuring asset information is readily available, and easily updated.
Capital Reserve Fund Studies – We create funding models that enables the testing of various levels of capital re-investment and their impact on the building condition and lifespan of each facility in the inventory as well as the predicted funding gap in each case.
Preventative Maintenance – Our proactive strategies for building maintenance keeps the building’s critical assets in good working order. We include recommendations for regular inspections and selective service and repairs to the building’s equipment at set intervals based on usage, time as well as historical equipment faults and equipment downtime.
Asset Retirement Obligations (ARO) – We understand the critical importance of navigating ARO requirements effectively. Our seasoned professionals possess the expertise needed to ensure compliance with PS 3280, offering tailored solutions that align with your unique organizational needs. From in-depth understanding of financial reporting requirements to technical environmental resource engagement, we are committed to providing comprehensive support for a seamless ARO process as a stand-alone service or integrated into complete condition assessment and asset management process.
Asset Management Program/Policy Development – We regularly work with municipalities in development of their asset management plans with the goal of not only compliance with the municipal asset management planning regulation (O. Reg. 588/2017) but the long-term financial sustainability of their portfolio of assets.

Accessibility

Our accessibility services are designed to ensure that everyone can access and benefit from our offerings, regardless of their abilities. We provide a range of support including assistive technologies, personalized accommodations, and accessible design practices. Our commitment includes continuous improvement and collaboration with users to create an inclusive environment that addresses diverse needs and enhances overall accessibility.

Our Accessibility Services include:

Accessibility Audits – Comprehensive assessments of existing properties to identify areas of AODA non-compliance
Barrier Removal Action Plans – Detailed recommendation with cost estimates and design strategies to remove accessibility barriers at your facilities
CMHC Funding – Support of applications to achieve grant funding for required accessibility upgrades to your facilities

Fire Performance and Building Safety

The science of fire safety engineering has advanced greatly over the years to give us an in-depth understanding of the critical stages of fire initiation, growth and decay, as well as design strategies for containment, detection, suppression, and egress. Such knowledge has enabled today’s building codes and fire protection engineers to design fire safe structures for our homes and cities as well as address retrofit challenge within existing buildings infrastructure.

Our fire protection engineering expertise in performance-based and alternative design solutions has a proven track record of achieving cost effective solutions that meet the challenges of aesthetics, maintainability, and energy conservation.

Our Fire Performance and Building Safety Services include:

Façade and Cladding Reviews – We assess the flame propagation and toxicological risk of existing facades and cladding as well as assess new designs and assembly/material innovations through research and testing (ex. CAN/ULC-S134, CAN/ULC-S101 and NFPA 285 test standards)
Egress Modelling – Our egress modelling tools help assess occupant movement (including elderly and vulnerable occupants) in new and existing facilities
Fire Safety Plans – Our integrated virtual Fire Safety Plans guide owners in setting up emergency response procedures, and in maintaining their fire protection elements and egress pathways.
Mass Timber Frame Design – Our expertise in wood buildings and fire performance helps architects and engineers find the balance between code compliance and performance-based design for innovative Mass Timber applications. We achieve this through the use of our risk-informed performance-based tools for the assessment of these wood structures decision-support methodologies to support the fire resilient design

We would love to help you!

Risk and Hazards

The use of risk-based design methods has gained increasing traction as building regulations transition from prescriptive towards more performance-based approaches. For fire safety, the hazards are generally fire, explosion, smoke, and toxicity associated with fire products. The likelihoods and corresponding consequences are derived from fire scenarios associated with these hazards.

Risk Assessment and Risk Modelling is the foundation of our overall approach and is used to drive pragmatic and defendable solutions backed by sound engineering knowledge. Through our innovative approach and industry leading tools we are able to identify appropriate assessment methods, identifying necessary attributes and requirements for input data, and develop a customized framework for a risk-informed performance-based assessment methodology. Our risk assessments can be applied at the element level, system level to inform performance based design as wells as at the community level to assist in long term planning and decision making towards overall risk reduction.

Our Risk and Hazards Services include:

Risk Assessment –A stakeholder engagement process is used to document potential hazards, and quantify risks to drive towards solutions that may include hazard removal, hazard substitution or engineering controls with appropriate functional safety and associated controls architecture
Process Safety – Is a proactive form of risk assessment combined with engineering solutions that focuses on preventing high-impact fires, explosions, accidental chemical releases, and structural collapses, especially in facilities that use, process, and handle hazardous materials.
Hazardous Area Classifications – Electrical area classifications for processes that pose a risk of explosion including, flammable liquid storage and dispensing, flammable dust processing and control.
Master Planning – Evidence based approach to master planning to allow municipalities and organizations make long term informed decisions for their owned assets and long term funding requirements.

Energy and Sustainability

The role of buildings in addressing climate change cannot be understated. They’re responsible for roughly 40 percent of emissions globally. With the specter of extreme weather looming in every region of the globe, the imperative to harden facilities is no longer optional. The mounting risks associated with climate change means resilience must be overlaid across all parts of an organization.

The physical risk associated with facilities — be it from flooding, fires or hurricanes — puts real estate professionals on the forefront of climate calamities, and necessitates that climate resiliency assessment are completed along side energy assessments and sustainability certification programs.

Our Energy and Sustainability Services include:

ASHRAE Level 1 and 2 Energy Audits – Our concise reports clearly define possible Energy Conservation Measures (ECMs) such as no- and low-cost measures, modifications to system controls and building automation, operational changes, and potential capital upgrades while taking into consideration life cycle renewals and the incremental costs of upgrading equipment at end of service life.
LEED Certification – Independent, third-party verification that a building project was designed and built, or operated, to achieve high performance in six areas of human and environmental health.
BOMA Certification – Support and navigation through BOMA Best Certifications of new and existing building.
Climate Resiliency Assessment – Evidence based examination of the building’s ability to respond to climate threats in Social Equity & Governance, Health & Wellness, Ecosystem Services, Infrastructure, and Economics

Training

For any professional involved in code compliance and fire protection engineering, training should include fundamental fire safety knowledge as well as in depth knowledge of codes and standards, fire prevention and protection measures, and  electrical safety hazards. Our experts are consistently involved in developing and delivering engineering courses that meet well defined learning objectives.

Some of our current training opportunities include:

Fundamental Fire and Smoke Dynamics and Principles of Fire Protection Engineering
Enclosure Fire Dynamics
Building and Fire Code Retrofit and Compliance
Egress Modelling and Human Behavior in Fire
Fire Risk Assessments
Fire Modelling and Simulations
Fire Forensic Investigations
Fire Testing of Materials and Assemblies
Industrial Fire Protection – Special Hazards Fire Suppression
Water and Wastewater Facility Fire and Toxic Exposure Protection
Design of Explosion Prevention and Deflagration Venting Systems
Advanced Fire Alarm System and Detection Design
Sprinkler Design for Engineers
Electrical Hazardous Area Classifications
Industrial Ventilation Design
Flammable and Combustible Liquids Storage and Dispensing
Capital Planning for Vertical Assets
Equipment Reliability and Preventative Maintenance
Accessibility, and Barrier Free, Equitable Design
Heat and Mass Transfer
Thermodynamics
Psychometrics, Moisture Control and Building Occupant Comfort
Building Materials, Processes and Fundamental Building Envelope Design