CAN/ULC-S1001 Integrated Systems Testing — Getting Ready for Occupancy

What happens after the fire alarm goes off?

Does the elevator recall? Do the doors release? Do the mechanical systems respond? Does the monitoring station receive the signal?

In Episode 49 of What the RFI?, we continue our four-part Building Occupancy Series with a practical look at CAN/ULC-S1001 Integrated Systems Testing from the Construction Administrator’s perspective.

We break down what S1001 testing is, how it differs from fire alarm verification, who needs to be involved, how to prepare for testing day, and what happens when one of the building’s integrated fire and life-safety systems doesn’t respond the way it should.

We also discuss the S1001 Integrated Testing Plan, coordinating contractors and consultants, common testing-day failures, retesting, deficiencies, and the final S1001 documentation needed as you work toward building occupancy.

In this episode:

• What CAN/ULC-S1001 Integrated Systems Testing is
• S1001 testing vs. fire alarm verification
• How fire alarm, elevators, doors, HVAC/BAS and other systems interact
• Who should be involved in integrated systems testing
• Preparing the building before testing day
• Coordinating trades, consultants and technicians
• What happens when an S1001 test fails
• Retesting and documenting deficiencies
• Final S1001 documentation for building occupancy
• Construction Administration lessons for keeping occupancy on track

Chapters

• 00:00 Fire Alarm Test — Does Everything Work?
• 00:39 S1001 Integrated Systems Testing
• 02:21 What Is CAN/ULC-S1001?
• 03:56 How Integrated Life-Safety Systems Work
• 05:41 S1001 vs. Fire Alarm Verification
• 07:09 Who Is Responsible for S1001 Testing?
• 10:34 The S1001 Testing Plan & Checklist
• 11:19 Before Testing Day — Don’t Use S1001 for Commissioning
• 12:45 Coordinate the Right People
• 15:31 S1001 Testing Day
• 19:30 Expect Something to Fail
• 21:29 Document Deficiencies & Retesting
• 22:40 Final S1001 Report for Occupancy
• 23:44 Construction Administrator Takeaways
• 25:17 S1001 Complete — What’s Next?

This is Part 2 of our four-part Building Occupancy Series, following Episode 47 on Building Occupancy Preparation.

Next up: the AHJ is coming to site. We’ll look at the final occupancy inspection, what the Authority Having Jurisdiction may be looking for, and what happens when the inspector finds something you weren’t expecting.

What the RFI? is a Construction Administration podcast for architects, engineers, consultants, contractors, owners and project managers working through the realities of construction.

🎙️Website - WhattheRFI.com

🍏Apple Podcast - What the RFI?
🎧Spotify - What the RFI?
🎥YouTube - @WhatTheRFI

Transcript

Copy Transcript Copied

1:00:00

(alarm ringing) Okay, the fire alarm works. Can we turn this off now? Much better. Well, we know the fire alarm works, but did the doors unlock? Did the elevator recall? Did the mechanical system shut down? Did the dampers close? Did the monitoring company actually get the signal? Because getting the fire alarm to make a whole bunch of noise is only part of the test. Today, we're talking about the S1000 wine integrated testing. Let's get into it.(upbeat music) Welcome to What the RFI. I'm Matt Brennan, and this is the podcast all about CA. So we're on this journey together to do basically a four-part series about all the way from your occupancy prep all the way to getting that actual occupancy permit. And there's a whole bunch of steps that are needing to go through this. So I encourage you to check out the last episode. I'll put a link below, and I'll put a link above the description there. Check it out. It really does tie into this whole system, how we get from the start to the finish line, right? And kind of just high level from that previous episode, we, you know, about regarding the occupancy prep, we talked about how getting organized early is really key. Understanding what documents are required, the letters of insurance, the fire alarm verification, the ULC monitoring certificate, consultant sign-offs, you know, booking the S100001 testing. That's what we're gonna get into today. And, you know, what authority having jurisdiction requirements that are applicable in our, you know, where our projects being built, okay? So like I said, this is kind of the second episode of this four-part series. And today we're going into the CAN ULC S100001 integrated system testing. What it looks like, how it involves, and, you know, kind of a high level agendas. What is it? Why do we even need it? You know, who needs to be involved in this testing? When should we start planning it? And when actually it happens on testing day and how it does affect the overall occupancy, okay? So let's dive into this. What is an S100001, all right? Things have really changed. It's always been there throughout the years, but the authorities, I mean, jurisdictions are requiring it more and it's becoming almost a standard procedure before occupancy. And the CAN ULC S100001 is the standard of integrated systems testing for fire protection and life safety system. So that's kind of the overall approach, and it's important to abbreviate it for just S100001. You know how much goes into this, you know, this small little word and so on. So, but the big thing is keyword here is it's integrated, right? It's not just pulling up a couple of fire alarms. It's the individual systems that may already been tested. It's the fire alarm verification that's already been completed, the splinker testing that may have to be completed, the mechanical equipment and access control. It is basically the brains between the life safety of this building, making sure that everything is talking together. And with this S100001, the question is, the question that we need to answer is do these systems actually talk to each other and respond correctly? That is really the key to this episode. And when you're on site, what you want to look for. So many times I've done a poll station test and we go to the Announciator panel and guess what? It's not working, right? It's saying a different zone. And that's what this episode is determining and prepping you for, okay? So let's just role play here for a second to give you a real understanding what the S00101 is all about. So the fire alarm activates. What should happen next? Well, does the alarm activate correctly? Does the Announciator panel show the correct information? Do the magnetic door opens release those doors? And then of course those doors naturally shut based on their closers. Do we require access control door releases, right? Maybe some doors actually open and spring open given the fire release. Does the elevator recall? Does it go to the first floor? Does it go to the second floor and open up? Very important, right? All this has to be working. Do the mechanical systems respond, right? So dampers start opening, playing with that. Do the smoke dampers operate when required? Does that fire shutter engage, right? Does the monitoring company receive that correct signal that there's been a trip in the alarm? And does the emergency power operate as intended? So there's all these things you can see that it's not just, there's so many, like the integrated systems can be very complicated, but you understand why this is so important that this does work properly. And when it gets later to having the AHA come through the building, the authority having jurisdiction, that it's working properly. So this is a really bulletproof test to ensure that the building is doing what it intended to be. And as you can see from one simple event is gonna trigger responses from several completely different building systems. And that S-1001 proves the sequence is actually working. And that's key. So, hey Matt, what's the difference between a fire alarm verification and an S-001? I think it's kind of the same thing. Well, it's probably one of the biggest misunderstandings between these two systems. And the fire alarm verification and S-1001 testing, they're not the same thing, right? A fire alarm verification confirms that the fire alarm system has been installed and operates correctly. You pull the bolt station, the fire alarm goes off. That's a simple one driver mechanism, okay? Integrated testing looks at what is happening between both systems, okay? And a project can have a perfectly verified system, but still can have problems during the integrated testing. Meaning like the fire alarm says the same thing correctly, good, check, that's good, but the elevator doesn't recall, right? So that's a fail, right? Or the doors don't release on those mag hold opens. The building automation system, BAS, BAS, doesn't respond correctly, okay? The fire alarm itself might be doing what it's supposed to do. Maybe it's not even ringing, right? All these things. So this integrated testing is bringing everything, as this kind of the brains of the operation, into this one workflow. And that's exactly why this testing exists. It's so important that these systems are all talking back and forth. So who is responsible for the S1,001? Well, as we talked in the previous episode, the Ocumsey Prep, it's, you have to look at your contract, right? Your specifications. Is this owner action? Is it in your specs for the contractor hire? Those are kind of the things. So really who's retaining it? Typically it's the owner, sometimes, of the contractor. If the contractor, it's in their scope, they'll probably hire their own crew, they know it. But if it's on the owner's side, you as the CRP, the Architect of Record, you're probably gonna jump in and help out with this. You're going to get them involved. And even though the owner is signing off on the paperwork, you're gonna basically integrate it out. So you'll get your quotes and then go from there. But don't assume someone has this covered. As we talked in the last episode, four months prior to your Ocumsey, your goal, that target day where you want to get the ASJ, that's when you're gonna start planning this. That's when you're gonna go out and reach out to these S1,001 groups that perform this as a consultant. Get your quotes, you get the idea. Okay, but one thing in planning this, who might need to participate in this S1,000? Well, it depends on the building, but required of course, is going to be the integrated testing partner, that consultant that's doing the S1,000 testing. The Architect CRP, you're gonna be there. It's your job, you wanna make sure. The owner, they don't have to be, but it's in their best interest. But we certainly need the general contractor. We need the electrical contractor, the sub in that sense. We need the fire alarm technician, the mechanical sprinkler, mechanical contractor, anyone doing some controls, the elevator technicians, need that sub technician there. And then from your side, you'll want the mechanical consultant engineer on that, and we'll want the electrical engineer consultant there as well. So it's quite a party to bring to this event when we do it. There is some optional individuals you may wanna incorporate in the day of testing. The door hardware access control, if you've got that, typically not, but it's an idea. Maybe there's a specialized generator, again, having that, usually under the mechanical trade that's there. So they're very familiar with it. One person I do always, or I always will invite, is I will invite the AHA, the authority having restriction, the building department and the fire department. We'll get into this episode, in the next episode, we're gonna get into this detail. But I've had cities saying, yes, I'd like to be part, I'll stop by and check out, see how it's going. Or they'll say, no, no, we don't wanna be involved in that in any kind of capacity. But they appreciate the invite. So it's up to you how you work with this, stay, just know who you're working with, and you'll get it figured out. The reality is though, the S 1001 can involve a lot of people, not quite a laundry list. It's a big department in accordance, not just one individual from each firm, it might be a few, okay? And coordinating this can be extremely important. Hence why we wanna do this early on in the process, because it takes time to do this, and it's just really, really important. So what is the plan for this? What is the integrated plan look like for the testing? So before everyone starts pulling out the fire alarms, pulling fire alarms and pushing binds, we have to have a plan in place. And this is where having a solid S 1001 checklist is really critical. I've got my list, bring it out of sight, I bring a clipboard, and we just wanna go through the list. And what systems are integrated, what do we wanna test, the initial devices, expected responses, who needs to operate the equipment, who needs to witness it, we wanna have that plan in place through it. And the test, we wanna activate a smoke detector, what does that look like? Ideally, we wanna know what we're expecting, the fire alarm activates, correct zones, LRE calls, everything we've kind of talked about. And then of course, we reset everything, and then we move on to the next test. So it's kind of just mentally just preparing you for it. And before testing day, before we actually do this formal S 1001, the S 1001 testing should not be a commissioning day. You should have already ran the test mechanical trade, and the fire sprinkler, and the elevator, they should already be doing all this prior to this actual testing day. So they should be already firing stuff up, it should be going really well, because we wanna get all the reports as well before we bring the S 1001. This is kind of like the final check off item for that occupancy prep that we talked in the last episode. And we just wanna confirm again, the fire alarm verification is all good, sprinklers are ready, the monitoring is established, the ULC monitoring certificate we talked in the last episode, generators working, the bass is operational, the access control, all these different systems in that. And if you already know the system, does it work? Well, guess what? We're not gonna bring the S 1001. Don't wait until the S 1001 testing comes out to discover that things still don't work. That is a waste of time, it's a waste of money, waste of people's time, and you're just gonna have to do a retest, and that's where it starts getting costly and stuff. But assuming you've gone through all the tests, everything's working and everything's happy, we're pretty much ready for the S 1001 day. And with doing this and coordinating this day, coordinate the right people, this deserves its own point because again, it can break the system. We wanna make sure that everyone's gonna be available to that. Don't just send a calendar invite and say, S 1001 testing Tuesday at 8 a.m., right? Start off with your emails, right? Understand who actually needs to attend. We talked about the list earlier in this episode, and just make it clear by email. Bring this up into your monthly occupancy review meetings four months before this actually happens, right? So just make sure everyone's aware of it, very clear when this is happening, who it needs to be. It sucks going to these meetings and finding electrical's not there. It's really, really important that everyone is on the same team at these meetings and a story, okay? And with your integrated S 1001 testing consultant in board, ask them, push them for the question. So what do they need? Stuff like who needs to be there? Which trades? Do they need any drawings? Do they need to see some floor plans? They're gonna form an actual report of what they do. And they may need some information from mechanical or the electrical or you as the architect. So really important to just again, just do your due diligence. You don't wanna be caught off guard, blindsided, or can we get this information? Make sure that they're involved in some of the site meetings or at least just CC'd on the meeting notes when you send it out. We want them to be involved, right? Having 10 people stand around waiting for the 11 person is an expensive way to spend a meeting. So let's just do it right. Get these guys involved in that. And now this brings us to testing day, okay? And before you go out there, I'm actually in the moment of preparing an actual S-1001 testing bag. Usually the contractor supplies all this, but you as the architect, the one that's kind of running the show, you should almost make your own bag because I've gone to like authority, AHA meetings where we've brought the building inspectors in there and they start asking us,"Hey, let's start doing some general testing." And we don't have the equipment. Our contractor for some reason is closed up. He's taken everything home out of there because their job is pretty much done and they don't have the equipment. So make a test S-1001 testing bag. And what this means is it's going to have two way radios. It's going to have a can of smoke. You're gonna have a portable heat gun in there. You're gonna have earplugs, really, really important. You'll appreciate it, you know, have anything out of this episode. And your S-1001 checklist along with a clipboard so you can make notes and just keep track to ensure that things are going well, okay? So it's Tuesday, 8 a.m. We're on site along with everyone. Get ready. We're all here, everyone's on site. You've got the contractor, you've got the consultants, the fire alarm technicians, elevator technicians, control people, testing. This is the real deal. We're doing this. We're gonna see if our building and the integrated systems, are they actually working? Are they actually going to, if there is a fire, what is gonna happen here? Are we gonna be safe or are we not even gonna be aware of what's going on? And we're gonna start testing things. And this is where if something doesn't work, it's okay. It's not okay, but it's okay. This is where things may not work. It's just reality. This is, again, a test recall. And when we start testing stuff, maybe a door doesn't release, the elevator doesn't recall correctly, the damper doesn't move. You get the idea. And sometimes it's a simple programming change. But we're basically, we're gonna go through the S-1001 consultant and he's gonna run through the testing. He's gonna start pulling off fire alarms. He's going to do the heat detectors, try different pull stations. And what this kind of looks like is we get the individuals with the two radios, we'll have someone at the front annouceator panel. We'll be walking around the building on that radio, pull that pull station, alarm goes off, it's loud. We've got the fire alarm. Hey, congratulations, you got one thing that's working. Like I said, did the elevator do its thing? It is great. We're gonna radio back to the guy at the annouceator panel, what's happening? What zone is it? It says classroom 102. Perfect, I'm in 102, right? Next, we may do a different pull station at a different stairwell. Pull station at ST2, what does it show up in the annouceator panel? Oh, it shows classroom 105. Oh, shoot, there's a program error. We gotta fix it, right? We'll get mechanical to climb up on top of the elevator cap to do the smoke detector there that to make sure that it's working. What happens when the testing, if we do the smoke detector, the heat detector on the second floor does the elevator automatically drop? And you can basically on the quick test like the elevator, we'll start with those trades first. We'll work with the elevator technician. So then after that's 100% done and we can send them on their way. We don't have to keep paying for their time, right? So we kind of eliminate of who's there. We'll go into the mechanical room, we'll check all, make sure everything's working there, right? You'll basically do a full on system throughout the whole building, making sure it works. Hey, did the mag hold opens for the emergency doors? Did they actually release and shut? Right? All these things, you're gonna go through that list, right? And like I said, if something's not working, you're gonna investigate it right away. And it may be a little tweak and then, hey, it's okay. But, you know, if it doesn't work, then that's where you may have to come back and do a retest. And it's not a problem, right? Sometimes you'll just have to come back. You'll get a test on, you'll get a completion, a pass on all these things, except for three things. Maybe the generator didn't work. Maybe some of the emergency lights didn't work. List goes on, right? And speaking of emergency lights, one of the things I like to do with this testing procedure is I like to kill the power first because our emergency lights have to stay on for a minimum of 30 minutes. So for the smaller jobs, it's almost the better to start off with kill the power, set your watch there, get the timer going for 30 minutes and start doing your test. You're actually doing the best test case scenario, the worst case. We lose power, there's a fire, is everything working? And it should, and it needs to be, right? And that's where it all comes in. After the 30 minutes, you've probably done majority of the tests. And if lights are still on, fantastic. We know these things are working, okay? But again, no one's perfect, expects things to fail sometimes, right? This is construction. Build some contingency into your schedule. So don't expect Monday S1000 testing, Tuesday, the fire department, Wednesday, the building inspector, occupancy Thursday, that's not the way to do it, right? And then Friday, students move in. That is not a realistic schedule. Leave time for your deficiencies leading up to the S1000 one, have the S1000, have a couple days for retesting, things getting fixed, and then bring the authority in the week later, at least, right, maybe even two weeks, depends on how things go. Sometimes you'll have to cancel those dates and then shift them, because that's just the way it is. Troubleshooting, programming changes, replacement components, retesting, final reports, getting the reports from the actual S1000 one, this all takes time. And of course, needless to say, retesting costs money, it costs the consultant time. For retest, we don't necessarily need to bring everyone back out there, but some may want to see it electrical before they hand off their schedules. They'll want to make sure. So if you can avoid a retest, great, but sometimes it's just a reality that you have to do it. And again, getting everyone back to do that retest means consultants time, the S1000 one consultant there, the elevator, the trades, you know the list. You're kind of getting an idea here, okay? So there's really a financial benefit to do your homework before the S1000 one comes to there and get it done. And of course, as we do this, every episode we dive into kind of the CA factor here is document deficiencies, document everything as you're doing this, as the testing's progressing, right? Record the failed test, make note, clearly identify what has failed, what's working, see if we can get the contractor on there to correct the issues, do a mini field review at the same moment, right? Don't rely on, oh yeah, we'll fix that, right? This is really important, this is really critical. As the architecture and record, you're not gonna sign off on stuff that's not working. This is super important, right? This is, if this test doesn't go on, if a fire alarm is not working or the sprinkler's not working, whatever the case is, that could be life or death. And that's why this has to be taken so seriously when you're going through this, right? So document it, put a proper field review, you're gonna get the S1000 one testing consultant, they're gonna give you a general report, no one can fail, and what are the things that I need to fix if that's the case, or you're just gonna pass it and you're gonna get a finalized report, okay? And passing the test isn't the finish line for this procedure, as we already know. This ties back to episode 47 about the OCCUSMID prep. You can't successfully finish the testing and not have, still have the documents for occupancy, right? So these are, that's why the last episode was so important, that's why this episode was important, and this kind of ties into the next one, which we'll get into in a minute, but the integrated testing coordinator still needs to complete their final report, as we talked about. This report, once you get it, this is something that we will want to give authority to have it in jurisdiction. So in our last episode, we talked about gathering all the different documents, the fire alarm verification, the ULC monitoring, and the last thing was the S1000 testing. So now we've got this final documentation, we can kind of package this together and get it over to the HJ, right? It's gonna be something that they'll wanna see in advance of them coming through their walkthrough. And depending on the project requirements, this is why our OCCMISI track edition, say, you know, S1000 complete, track the process, right? We did these testings and I have the final documents sitting in my OCCMISI package for the HJ. Really, really important. So final CA, construction administration takeaways for this. If you're the CA managing the OCCMISI, here are the big things I'd be watching, all right? I'm tracking very carefully. Start early, all right? We've talked about this numerous times. Don't do this a week before. Do this four months, start getting started early. Start figuring out who is doing the S1001, get those quotes, get it ready to go. Know who's responsible. Make sure the individuals who are responsible, that they know that they're responsible. Just basically get that testing plan early, start it up, understand what needs to happen on the testing day. So again, we kind of go through this list, have your checklist, make sure you're there. Again, it's not commissioning. This is a test of everything that you've been working towards to this day. Coordinate with the right trades, make sure they're there. Build time for retesting. So looking at your schedule, track the paperwork. The S1001 is a simply, it's a team sport, right? It's a team effort to get this together. There is no finger pointing in this aspect. Everyone's working together and they all have to be on the same page that they want to make sure this works, right? The architect can't program the elevator. The elevator technician can't fix the bath systems. The mechanical contractor can't probe the access control system. You get it, they're all working. We're all working together as a team. Every individual systems might work perfectly on its own, but Ocmacy requires to prove that they're working together. That's really what it is. So in closing, the fire alarm works, the door's unlocked, the elevator we've called, dampers moved, great, and the monitoring company got the signal. Fantastic. After a couple of deficiencies, some frantic programming changes, and probably one technician up showing late, we passed the S1001. Fantastic. Are we ready for Ocmacy? Yeah, not quite. Couple more hoops. We're almost there. And because the authority jurisdiction is coming through the building, and they are going to find things. They always are going to find things. But in the next episode, we're going to be talking about the final Ocmacy with the authority heaven jurisdiction. They're going to come through. We're going to talk how to prepare for it, what they're looking for, how to deal with those last minute items before we get that finalized Ocmacy permit. So until next time, keep the RFI's moving along, and architects keep designing, and contractors keep making those blueprints reality. We'll see on the next one.(upbeat music)