Services Overview
Fire Safety Consultancy
Ardenlea provides clear, practical fire safety strategies, risk assessments and fire engineering advice across the UK.
Our Work
Our work is split evenly between residential and commercial projects, enabling us to apply broad expertise across a diverse range of building types and operational environments.
Residential Sector
We work on both individual dwellings and multi-storey blocks of flats, producing fire strategies for new developments, refurbishments, and conversions.
We are often brought in to assist projects that have stalled during construction, where building control officers require re-evaluation or adaptation of the fire strategy before sign-off. Recently we have been carrying out plan reviews at an early stage of developments to ensure that at pre planning stage, the scheme has a suitable compliant design.
Commercial Sector
We undertake fire risk assessments for a wide variety of premises including care homes and schools through to offices, hotels, and large industrial warehouses.
Our combined experience allows us to offer real-world, achievable solutions that balance safety, compliance, and operational practicality. Many of our fire risk assessments follow on from fire strategies we have previously developed, enabling clients to verify that completed projects have been constructed and operated in line with the original fire safety design intent.
services
Fire Risk Assessment
We carry out fire risk assessments for buildings of every type, age and use, from historic heritage premises to modern new builds.
Our assessments identify potential fire hazards, evaluate existing control measures, and provide clear, detailed action plans that explain exactly what remedial work is required to reduce risk and maintain compliance.
A fire risk assessment is a thorough audit of your building and all its fire safety arrangements. We benchmark where you stand against the fire design principles for your type of building, then identify what’s needed such as rectification works, maintenance, better fire safety management, or an upgrade to your arrangements.
We will help you resolve any queries regarding occupancy capacity and can help if you’ve received correspondence from your local fire and rescue service, including:
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Letters and follow-ups
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Enforcement notices
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Alterations notices
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Prohibition or restriction notices
We’ll help you understand what’s being asked, respond with confidence and meet the timescales.
Fire Strategies
A fire strategy explains how a building is designed to help everyone get out safely in the event of a fire.
It follows a standard framework based on the fire requirements of the Building Regulations:
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B1 – warning people of a fire and getting them out safely
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B2 – limiting fire spread over wall and ceiling surfaces
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B3 – keeping the structure standing and stopping fire spreading inside the building
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B4 – stopping fire spreading to and from neighbouring buildings
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B5 – giving firefighters the access and facilities they need
Every strategy is built around who uses the building and how it will be evacuated. A hospital, for example, is evacuated very differently from a typical office.
We define the full occupancy of the building and set out the evacuation strategy that suits it.
New buildings and existing ones
For new buildings, the fire strategy underpins the construction itself.
For existing buildings, we produce retrospective fire strategies that explain how the building relates to current fire design principles.
Fire Engineering Appraisals
Want an expert view on fire safety in a building? We can help.
We can look at any part of a building's fire design, including:
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Means of escape – how people get out safely
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Smoke ventilation – keeping escape routes clear of smoke
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Fire alarms – detection and warning systems
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Fire compartmentation – stopping fire spreading inside the building
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Fire separation – stopping fire spreading between buildings
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Facilities for firefighters – such as dry risers and water supplies
We can look at each of these on its own, or at how they all work together as part of the building's overall fire design.
Fire Door Inspections
We provide detailed fire door inspections to assess the condition,
compliance, and performance of door sets. We look at both the door fabric and maintenance aspects together and produce an easy-to-understand report that clearly identifies the actions required to bring doors up to a suitable compliance standard commensurate with the premises risk.
Our inspections ensure that fire doors function as intended; containing fire and smoke, preserving compartmentation, and protecting escape routes.
Compartmentation Assessments
We apply recognised fire design principles to develop bespoke and robust assessment methodologies.
Our approach identifies current compartmentation standards, evaluates what is reasonably practicable to achieve, and delivers an auditable,
evidence-based solution aligned with our clientsʼ business planning and operational objectives.
Fire Statements
We can write fire statements that meet the requirements of London Plan Policy
D12, Fire Safety but also importantly provide a view on the suitability of the fire strategy to ensure that the design is achievable.
The fire statement will contain the principles, concepts and approach relating to fire safety that have been applied to each building in the development, a review of emergency vehicle access and water supplies for firefighting purposes and define the
fire strategy aspects of the upcoming development project, and the methods that will be used to ensure these fire safety requirements are fulfilled.
Why Fire Safety Matters
Regulatory Compliance
Ensure your projects meet all UK fire safety regulations and statutory requirements through specialist technical guidance.
Risk Management
Identify potential hazards early and implement practical, cost-effective strategies to manage and mitigate fire-related risks.
Project Continuity
Avoid costly delays and project setbacks by integrating expert fire safety engineering from the earliest planning stages.
Safety Excellence
Achieve a higher standard of safety for building occupants through technically superior fire strategy development.