What fire and life-safety inspections can be done in-house?

More than most facilities realize. Under the national codes, trained facility staff can perform and document monthly extinguisher and emergency-lighting checks, weekly and monthly sprinkler gauge and control-valve checks, generator weekly inspections and monthly load runs, fire-door and fire-alarm visual walkthroughs, and HVAC filter service. Annual fire alarm and sprinkler tests, hood cleaning, extinguisher maintenance, backflow testing, and elevator certificates typically require a certified or licensed professional. The calculator tiers every task and estimates the contractor cost eligible for in-house performance.

Which facility inspections are actually required by code, and which are just recommended?

They are not the same thing, and most task lists mix them together. Required means an adopted code, federal regulation or consensus standard names both the task and its interval — NFPA 25 quarterly sprinkler waterflow testing, NFPA 10 monthly extinguisher checks, the 42 CFR §483.73 emergency preparedness exercises, the 29 CFR §1904.32 OSHA 300A posting. Best practice means manufacturer instruction or standard of care that surveyors and insurers commonly expect but no enforceable authority fixes the interval for — dryer vent cleaning, nurse call testing, roof inspections, HVAC filter service. This builder labels every task as Required, Best practice or Extra, and lets you generate a bare-minimum calendar, a minimum-plus-best-practice calendar, or everything.

How often do fire and smoke dampers have to be tested?

Under NFPA 80 and NFPA 105, every fire, smoke and combination damper is tested one year after installation, then every four years — except in hospitals, where the interval is six years. Running a hospital on the four-year cycle over-schedules an expensive contractor visit by 50%. The builder applies the correct interval automatically from your facility type.

Is an undocumented inspection the same as a missed one?

For audit purposes, yes. During surveys and AHJ inspections, an inspection with no written record is treated as if it never happened. That is why this tool marks any system with no record as 'due now' — the documentation is the compliance.

Does this replace my local fire marshal's requirements?

No. It states the national consensus-standard baseline (NFPA, ASME, ASHRAE) with the code edition noted per item, and marks with a star the tasks where local jurisdictions most commonly require licensed personnel or stricter frequencies. It generates an AHJ question sheet so you can confirm those with your fire marshal and water authority.

How often does a fire alarm system need testing?

Under NFPA 72: visual panel and device checks monthly, supervisory device testing quarterly, component inspections semi-annually, and a full system test annually. Smoke detector sensitivity is tested after year one and then every two years with calibrated equipment. Many AHJs require NICET-certified technicians for the annual test.

How often does a commercial kitchen hood need cleaning?

Under NFPA 96 (§12.4 in the 2024 edition): monthly for solid-fuel cooking, quarterly for high-volume (24-hour, charbroil, wok), semi-annually for moderate volume, and annually for low volume. Cleaning is done by a certified company; filter cleaning is in-house.

Compliance Calendar

A dated 12-month fire & life-safety calendar with overdue flags.

Not sure what yours requires? What your state actually requires — drills, filings, forms, how long you keep records.

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1Address
2Facility
3Systems
4Details
5Dates
6Review

Facility addressFacility name (optional)Street address

Printed on every output — the calendar header and log sheets. You can skip it and add it later.

Free · No signup. Your dates and facility details stay on your device — every calculation happens on your device.

Do you actually know what your maintenance team is allowed to do?

Full task-by-task breakdown: What fire & life-safety inspections can your own staff perform? →

Most facilities pay contractors for tasks their own trained staff can legally perform and document. The national fire and life-safety codes — NFPA, ASME, ASHRAE — set the requirement, and for a large share of tasks they explicitly allow a qualified person on staff to do the work, provided it's documented. This tool is the only one that tiers every task by who may perform it and estimates the contractor spend you could bring in-house.

The performed-by tiers

Every task on your calendar carries one of four tiers. Tier 1 is any competent staff member after orientation — monthly extinguisher and exit-light checks, filter swaps. Tier 2 is a trained, qualified person whose name and qualification go on the record — generator load runs, 90-minute emergency-light discharge tests, sprinkler gauge logs. Tier 3 is a certified or licensed professional the code or near-universal practice requires — annual sprinkler inspection, hood cleaning, backflow testing, elevator certificates. And Tier 2★ is the one that matters most: qualified under the national code, but licensing is commonly required locally — the annual fire alarm test is the classic example. Those get a star and a question for your AHJ, because that's exactly where honest guidance and real savings meet.

Undocumented = out of compliance

This is the tool's own standard, and it's the one surveyors use. During an audit, an inspection with no written record is treated as a missed inspection — so any system you mark “no record” is flagged red and dated due now. That's not a punt; it's the code-accurate answer, and it doubles as your to-do list. The log sheets the tool prints capture exactly what the codes require a record to contain: task, date, who performed it and their qualification, the result, any deficiency, the corrective action, and the next due date.

The stat that sells the weekly log

Closed control valves cause the majority of sprinkler activation failures — which is why NFPA 25 puts a weekly or monthly control-valve check at the top of the list, and why it's a Tier 1, in-house task. A two-minute walk, logged, is the cheapest life-safety insurance a building has. The building owner — not the contractor — is responsible for the program under NFPA 25, even when the work is delegated by lease.

National baseline, honestly marked

Codes are revised on cycles, and section numbers move between editions — NFPA 96's frequency table is §11.4 in older editions and §12.4 in the 2024 edition, for instance — so every task on your calendar carries its citation and the edition it was verified against. Where a requirement is genuinely state-governed (boilers) or still being verified (medical gas, pool / spa, roof, water heater), the tool says so with an amber “verify” badge rather than printing a citation it can't stand behind.

This calendar says when. The Log Book is what you write it on — the same rules, at the same intervals, turned into the sheets that prove the work happened. An undocumented test and a test that never happened look identical on inspection day.

A test this calendar schedules is also the earliest warning that something is worn out rather than out of adjustment — a generator failing its load bank, emergency lights failing the 90-minute discharge, a fire panel your alarm company keeps alive with salvaged parts. When that is what a failure means, it belongs on the capital plan rather than the repair budget. The 300A posting window and the electronic submission deadline are two more dates worth putting on this calendar.

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This calendar reflects national consensus-standard baselines (NFPA, ASME, ASHRAE) with the edition noted per item. Your state, local fire marshal, water authority, or accrediting body may require more frequent service or licensed personnel where a qualified person is shown. This is general information, not legal or engineering advice. See our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.

Questions people ask

What fire and life-safety inspections can be done in-house?: More than most facilities realize. Under the national codes, trained facility staff can perform and document monthly extinguisher and emergency-lighting checks, weekly and monthly sprinkler gauge and control-valve checks, generator weekly inspections and monthly load runs, fire-door and fire-alarm visual walkthroughs, and HVAC filter service. Annual fire alarm and sprinkler tests, hood cleaning, extinguisher maintenance, backflow testing, and elevator certificates typically require a certified or licensed professional. The calculator tiers every task and estimates the contractor cost eligible for in-house performance.
Which facility inspections are actually required by code, and which are just recommended?: They are not the same thing, and most task lists mix them together. Required means an adopted code, federal regulation or consensus standard names both the task and its interval — NFPA 25 quarterly sprinkler waterflow testing, NFPA 10 monthly extinguisher checks, the 42 CFR §483.73 emergency preparedness exercises, the 29 CFR §1904.32 OSHA 300A posting. Best practice means manufacturer instruction or standard of care that surveyors and insurers commonly expect but no enforceable authority fixes the interval for — dryer vent cleaning, nurse call testing, roof inspections, HVAC filter service. This builder labels every task as Required, Best practice or Extra, and lets you generate a bare-minimum calendar, a minimum-plus-best-practice calendar, or everything.
How often do fire and smoke dampers have to be tested?: Under NFPA 80 and NFPA 105, every fire, smoke and combination damper is tested one year after installation, then every four years — except in hospitals, where the interval is six years. Running a hospital on the four-year cycle over-schedules an expensive contractor visit by 50%. The builder applies the correct interval automatically from your facility type.
Is an undocumented inspection the same as a missed one?: For audit purposes, yes. During surveys and AHJ inspections, an inspection with no written record is treated as if it never happened. That is why this tool marks any system with no record as 'due now' — the documentation is the compliance.
Does this replace my local fire marshal's requirements?: No. It states the national consensus-standard baseline (NFPA, ASME, ASHRAE) with the code edition noted per item, and marks with a star the tasks where local jurisdictions most commonly require licensed personnel or stricter frequencies. It generates an AHJ question sheet so you can confirm those with your fire marshal and water authority.
How often does a fire alarm system need testing?: Under NFPA 72: visual panel and device checks monthly, supervisory device testing quarterly, component inspections semi-annually, and a full system test annually. Smoke detector sensitivity is tested after year one and then every two years with calibrated equipment. Many AHJs require NICET-certified technicians for the annual test.
How often does a commercial kitchen hood need cleaning?: Under NFPA 96 (§12.4 in the 2024 edition): monthly for solid-fuel cooking, quarterly for high-volume (24-hour, charbroil, wok), semi-annually for moderate volume, and annually for low volume. Cleaning is done by a certified company; filter cleaning is in-house.