Fire Stopping and Compartmentation Surveys in Nottingham
A compartmentation survey checks whether the walls, floors and voids that should hold a fire back actually do, and finds the holes where pipes and cables have broken through. A visual survey of a small building usually costs £300 to £1,200 plus VAT. Send us the building details and a local surveyor will come back with a fixed quote.
Updated October 2026
When you need one
Most people find this page because their fire risk assessment said something like “compartmentation could not be confirmed” or “voids not accessed”. A normal fire risk assessment is a visual inspection. It doesn’t open up ceilings or lift floors, so it often can’t tell you whether a loft is divided or a riser is sealed. A compartmentation survey goes further to find out.
- Your fire risk assessment flagged it. This is the usual trigger. The Fire Industry Association points out that “a full survey is not a requirement of a fire risk assessment”, but where the assessor has real doubt the assessment “may recommend that another type of assessment be carried out”.
- Flats above a shop, takeaway or pub. Guidance generally expects 60 minutes of fire resistance between commercial and residential parts. Whether a 1970s ceiling under a flat gives that is something you can’t see from below.
- An HMO or a house converted into flats. The LACORS housing guidance that councils work to sets 30 minutes of protection between units as the general standard.
- After building work. New cabling, a refit, a new boiler flue or data points can all leave holes in walls and floors that were sealed before.
- A lender, insurer or buyer’s surveyor asks for evidence. Where fire stopping can’t be shown to meet the standard, buildings face harder questions when they are sold or refinanced.
Which inspection looks at what
The government’s guide to fire safety in purpose-built flats describes four types of fire risk assessment. A compartmentation survey sits alongside them, and the table shows where each one stops.
| Inspection | Where it looks | Opens anything up? | Will it confirm compartmentation? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Type 1 fire risk assessment | Common parts | No | Only what can be seen. The usual standard for most blocks. |
| Type 2 fire risk assessment | Common parts | Yes, on a sampling basis | Partly, where samples are taken |
| Type 3 fire risk assessment | Common parts and some flats | No | Only what can be seen, including inside flats |
| Type 4 fire risk assessment | Common parts and some flats | Yes, on a sampling basis | Partly, where samples are taken |
| Compartmentation survey | Roof, ceiling and floor voids, risers, service cupboards, plant rooms | Visual first, opening up only where needed | Yes. Every breach found is photographed, located and graded |
Fire risk assessment types from the Local Government Association guide Fire safety in purpose-built blocks of flats. GOV.UK now describes that guide as “no longer comprehensive”, but it is still where the four types are defined. Housing assessments are now carried out to BS 9792:2025, which replaced PAS 79-2 in August 2025.
What a compartmentation survey costs
We checked the published prices of seven survey firms in October 2026, plus two public contract documents. None of the firms that serve Nottingham publish a price, so these are national figures. A local surveyor’s quote is the real number.
| Survey | Typical published price |
|---|---|
| Visual survey of a small block, HMO or flats above a shop | £300 to £1,200 |
| Sampled intrusive survey (some openings made) | £1,500 to £3,000 |
| Large or high-rise residential building | £5,000 to £15,000 |
| Sampling inside individual flats | £50 to £120 a flat (one firm) |
Prices shown are before VAT. Access equipment, asbestos precautions and making good after openings are often charged on top, so ask what is included. Should the building differ from what you described, the surveyor agrees any price change with you first.
Repairs are a separate cost. Firms quote £50 to £200 to seal a single penetration, and one 2026 HMO cost guide puts 30-minute compartmentation work in a five-bed HMO conversion at £1,500 to £3,000. A good survey grades each breach so you can fix the urgent ones first. If you also need the fire risk assessment itself, see our fire risk assessment prices.
What the surveyor looks for
Service penetrations
Pipes, cables and ducts passing through a compartment wall or floor. Each hole has to be sealed with a tested product to the same fire resistance as the wall it goes through. Builders’ foam and mortar rarely are.
Roof and ceiling voids
Whether the walls between flats or houses carry on up into the loft, or stop at the ceiling and leave one open void across the whole roof. Fires that get into a shared roof void can run the length of the building.
Risers and service cupboards
Vertical shafts carrying pipes and cables between floors. Each floor should be sealed, or the riser itself enclosed, so a fire can’t climb the building through it.
Cavity barriers
Barriers inside wall cavities, roof spaces and external wall systems that stop smoke and flame running through hidden gaps. Often missing, badly fitted or cut through for later work.
Everything found goes into a report with a photo, a location on the floor plan and a priority grade. The Association for Specialist Fire Protection publishes the guidance most surveyors and installers work to. If repairs are needed, ask for an installer certificated under a third-party scheme such as FIRAS or LPCB LPS 1531, which check the installer’s work, not just the product.
What comes up in Nottingham buildings
Converted pubs and older buildings made into flats
A 2022 fire risk assessment of six flats in a converted 1930s pub in NG6, published by the housing association that owns it, answered “Unknown” on compartmentation because the roof space couldn’t be reached. Its high-priority action: “The building should be surveyed by a qualified surveyor to establish the levels of compartmentation”. It also said stay put couldn’t be relied on until then. That is the typical route into a survey.
Lace Market and Hockley warehouses
Most of the Lace Market’s old lace warehouses now hold flats, offices and college buildings, and conversions are still going on: three linked warehouses on Lennox Street in Hockley were approved for 49 student bed spaces. Old buildings carved into new units are where compartment walls get pierced, extended or assumed.
Fires that start out of sight
In November 2016 a fire at Tithe Barn Court on North Gate in Newark started in a cavity wall and roof void, and residents couldn’t go back into the block (Notts TV). Hidden voids are exactly what a visual walk-round can’t see into.
More buildings failing audits
Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue carried out 2,305 fire safety audits in the year to March 2025, and 383 were unsatisfactory, up 51% on five years earlier (Fire Industry Association). Nottingham City also licenses HMOs city-wide, so conversions are inspected more often than they used to be.
What people actually ask
“Instead there are shared open roof voids covering 3 – 4 flats. This does seem a bit conflicting with the guidance documents I have reviewed.”
A poster on the Safelincs fire safety forum
It is a fair worry. Whether an open roof void is acceptable depends on what sits under it: a fire-resisting ceiling to each flat can do the job instead of walls in the loft, and cavity barriers can split the void. Nobody can tell which from the landing. A survey goes into the void, checks the ceilings and barriers and tells you whether the building matches what the fire strategy assumes.
“I’m a leaseholder of a purpose-built block of 8 flats built in 1985.”
A leaseholder on the Safelincs fire safety forum, who added that the managing agent’s fire risk assessment “seems highly dubious in its recommendations”
If an assessment recommends expensive compartmentation work without explaining why, ask what it is based on. A recommendation should point to something seen, such as an unsealed riser or an open void, or to something that couldn’t be checked. A survey settles it with photos of each breach, so you are paying to fix real holes rather than a blanket recommendation.
“Just discovered that in the victorian end of terrace house that I am selling there is no dividing wall in the loft between my house and the next.”
A homeowner on the MoneySavingExpert forum, 2009
Common in older terraces, and it matters most once a house is turned into an HMO or flats, because the loft then links separate households. If you are converting or licensing a Victorian terrace in Nottingham, have the loft checked before the work is planned, when closing it off is cheapest.
How to spot a weak survey
- It should say what was and wasn’t reached. Every void, riser and room that couldn’t be accessed should be listed, with the reason. Silence is not a pass.
- Every breach needs a photo and a location. Marked on a floor plan, with a reference, so a contractor can find it and you can prove it was fixed.
- Breaches should be graded. Critical, high, medium and low, or similar, so you know what to fix this week and what can wait.
- Asbestos checked before anything is opened. Older buildings need the asbestos register looked at first. A surveyor who drills into a 1970s ceiling without asking is a warning sign.
- Watch for survey-and-fix packages. Plenty of firms do both, which is fine, but get the survey report in your hands before you agree to their repair quote, and feel free to price the repairs elsewhere.
What happens on the day
The surveyor starts with drawings and any previous fire risk assessments, then works through the building, usually from the top. Expect them to need the loft hatch, every riser and service cupboard, plant rooms and, if flats are included, a sample of flats. Tell residents in advance.
A visual survey uses ladders, torches and cameras and lifts ceiling tiles where they lift. If you have asked for intrusive work, small openings are made where the visual survey can’t see enough, and the quote should say who makes them good. You get the report afterwards. For the wider picture, a fire risk assessment for your block of flats or your HMO covers escape routes, alarms and fire doors too. Doors on their own are covered by a fire door survey.
A typical job
Two flats above a takeaway, Nottingham
A two-storey flat-roofed building on a main road, with the takeaway on the ground floor and two flats above. The surveyor checks the ceiling between the shop and the flats from below and from the flat floors, the stair enclosure and the shared loft void. What usually comes up: holes where the extraction duct and cables pass up through the shop ceiling, and a loft void running across both flats with nothing dividing it. Visual survey cost: around £500 to £900 plus VAT.
An illustrative example based on the guidance and prices on this page. Not a real customer or property.
Fire stopping and compartmentation FAQs
Get a Compartmentation Survey Quote in Nottingham
Tell us about the building and what your fire risk assessment said. A local surveyor reads it and comes back to you with a fixed quote, based on the details you give. No obligation.
Prefer to talk? Call 0115 647 8715 · lines are open Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.