AI tendering for fire alarm and security installers

Price a fire alarm tender per point, built from the minutes each device takes to install, your labour rate, materials and cable per point, then add the panel, cause and effect programming, commissioning, design and handover as separate lines. Before pricing, confirm the BS 5839-1 category is stated and comes from the fire risk assessment, because choosing it isn't your job.

What makes fire alarm and security tenders hard to price?

The device count is the easy part. The cost sits in what the system must do and what you have to prove at handover.

The problems that come up on most fire alarm and security packages:

• Category. Not stated, stated wrongly, or at odds with the device layout.
• Cause and effect. What the system does on each alarm: sounders, door releases, lift recall, ventilation, alarm receiving centre. Often missing from the pack.
• Cabling and containment. Fire-resistant cable routes, fixings and containment through occupied areas.
• Commissioning and certification. Design, installation, commissioning and acceptance certificates, logbook and zone plan.
• Maintenance. Some tenders bundle a service contract with the install.
• Third-party certification. BAFE for fire, and a named security certification body for intruder and CCTV work where the spec or insurer asks for one.

One electrical and fire alarm contractor in London, running about 10 live commercial projects in care homes, pubs and restaurants, told us quoting takes "two, three days" in some weeks. He also wanted a tracker for every job showing the PO, what's invoiced, what's outstanding and the final account, because commercial fire alarm work runs on purchase orders and staged payments. See the per-job tracker guide for that side.

How do you price a 120-point care home system?

Count points from the device layout, price them per point, then add the work that isn't a point.

Panel, programming, design and handover come to £4,990, or a third of the price. A per-point rate that tries to absorb them is wrong on every job that isn't the same size. Try your own figures:

The price per point guide explains how to set the minutes and materials for each device type.

Is the fire alarm category specified?

It should be, and it should come from the fire risk assessment or fire strategy. The Fire Industry Association's guidance says the decision rests with the fire safety specialist, "such as fire engineers, fire risk assessors or enforcing authorities", and that the purchaser should tell the designer which category is required.

Those changes cost money at tender. Multi-sensors in bedrooms cost more than heat detectors, lobbies add points, and a cause and effect document takes time to write. If a pack was drawn to the 2017 edition, say which edition you've priced.

In England and Wales, the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 makes the responsible person ensure premises have fire detectors and alarms where that's needed to keep people safe, which is why the category comes from their fire risk assessment. Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own fire safety law, so ask who the responsible party is and get the category from them.

What should a fire alarm tender clarify?

Category, cause and effect, cabling and commissioning. Get those four right and most variations become easy to agree.

Tender: project, fire detection and alarm system
Our price: £amount excluding VAT, dated date

Category and design
1. System priced as Category L2 to BS 5839-1:2025, from layout drawings numbers, revisions. Category to be confirmed by the fire risk assessor or fire engineer.
2. Design responsibility: design by us, BAFE SP203-1 design module / design by others, installation only.

Cause and effect
3. Cause and effect priced from matrix reference / our assumed strategy attached. Changes after programming charged at £rate per day.
4. Interfaces to door holders, dampers, lifts, ventilation and access control: connection of our interface units only. Work on third-party equipment by others.

Cabling and containment
5. Cable: enhanced / standard fire-resistant cable in red, clipped or in containment as specified. Containment included / by others.
6. Builder's work, fire stopping of our penetrations included / by others, and making good excluded unless listed.

Commissioning and handover
7. Commissioning and certificates for design, installation, commissioning, acceptance, logbook, zone plan and cause and effect document included.
8. Alarm receiving centre connection and line rental excluded.
9. Maintenance: 12 months at two six-monthly visits included / priced separately.

Programme
10. Based on number visits with power and access available. Phased handovers charged at £rate per additional commissioning visit.

For general lines on payment and attendances, use the tender qualifications and exclusions template.

What can AI do on a fire alarm tender, and what can't it?

AI handles the counting and the standards cross-checks that eat days. It can't find out what's behind an existing ceiling.

What AI does well:

• Counts points from layout drawings by device type, and checks them against the device schedule. See can AI do a take-off from drawings.
• Checks the layout against the category and edition, such as heat detectors in sleeping rooms or missing lobby detection.
• Finds what's missing: cause and effect, interfaces, maintenance scope, certification requirements.
• Drafts clarifications and a priced schedule from your per-point rates.

What still needs the installer:

• Existing conditions. Old cabling, ceiling voids and what's left of a previous system.
• Buildability. Cable routes through an occupied care home, and how long each room takes.
• Interfaces. What the lift, door and ventilation contractors will provide, and when.
• Certification and sign-off. Your name goes on the certificates.

How do you win more fire alarm and security tenders?

Show you understand the standard and the paperwork. Clients buying fire alarms are buying compliance as much as hardware.

• State your certification. BAFE SP203-1 covers commercial fire detection and alarm work by module: design, installation, commissioning and maintenance.
• Name the category and edition you've priced.
• Offer maintenance as a clear separate price.
• Read the pack first with the 10-minute tender read.

Electrical and fire alarm firms can see how Nexley handles their work on the mechanical and electrical trade page.

Common questions