Defect Rectification
Turn the defect register into a work programme that can actually be closed out.
Overview
A defect register can hold ten items or ten thousand. We work from the report you already have, sort the items that repeat from the few that are genuinely one-offs, price them as separate packages so the bulk of it costs what bulk should cost, and tie the finished photographs and paperwork back to the exact item they belong to.
A defect line is not yet a scope
"Fire stop non-compliant", "door gap", "damper issue" or "fire-rated wall damaged" may identify that something is wrong, but not what condition was observed, which system applies, or what evidence was used. Before pricing a large register the useful question is: which of these lines are the same problem repeated, and which are one-offs that need more information?
We group it so the bulk of it prices as bulk
Most of a large register is the same handful of conditions repeated. We group those into repeatable packages — same asset type, same system family, same repair — and price them as volume, which is where the saving on a big register actually comes from.
What we pull out of the package are the few that genuinely differ: the system that cannot be identified, the substrate that is not what the detail assumed, the repair that would change the performance, or material that is asbestos-suspect. Those get priced and resolved separately rather than dragging the rate up on everything else.
Why the number at the end of it holds up
- A defect closes when the repair is right, not when the surface looks neat.
- Your consultant's original wording stays on the record. We add to it; we do not quietly upgrade it.
- Each condition is repaired to a detail that suits it, rather than one detail copied across a building because the photographs looked alike.
- Priority follows what matters in your building, not a generic severity scale.
- The completed count means completed. Anything still open is visible as open, so nobody is surprised at handover.
- Asbestos-suspect material is separated out and resolved under our own Class A and Class B licences before it is touched.
What happens to a defect list
Every defect is recorded against a specific asset in a specific location, with a category, a description, a photograph and a scope of works. Not a line on a spreadsheet — an item with a reference number that can be tracked from the day it is raised to the day it is signed off.
Critical defects go first. A critical defect is one that defeats the separation the element is there to provide, so it is the one that matters on the day of a fire, and it is dealt with before anything cosmetic or administrative. Beyond that, the order is worked out with you around access, occupancy, trade coordination and what the building can physically accommodate at the time.
Our own crews carry out the work. Where a specialist trade is brought in for part of a scope, it is supervised by us and verified by us before it is handed back — it does not go out and come back unchecked.
Each item is verified after the repair and its status changed with a date and time against it. You can see what was raised, what was done, who did it and when it was checked. At close-out you have a record of every item and its final state, item by item, which is what stands up when somebody audits the building two years later.
When an item turns out to be bigger than the list said
It happens on most programmes. A defect written up as a simple repair turns out to sit on a system nobody can identify, or in material that needs testing before anyone touches it, or on an assembly where the damage goes further than the photograph showed.
Those are reported, not absorbed. We tell you what we found, what it changes, and what it would take to resolve properly — and we do not quietly widen the scope, and we do not close an item as complete when what we did was cover it up.
What you get at completion
A rectification programme leaves with a Certificate of Compliance covering the defects we repaired — the systems used, where they are, and the test evidence each one was installed against. It certifies our work on those items. It does not certify the rest of the building.
Behind it sits the record itself: every asset listed individually with its location, the system and manufacturer, the substrate, the test report number, the dimensions, the install date, the fire resistance level achieved, and before and after photographs. Not a representative sample. Every item.
That is what makes the certificate useful to a building surveyor rather than decorative. A certificate that cannot point at the evidence behind each item is a letterhead.
Fire Rated Systems certifies the work itself, on the strength of its own inspection, its own installation records and the test evidence behind each system. FRS is also an FPAS Recognised Business with FPA Australia.
Work carried out by others
The certificate covers what we installed or inspected. Where someone else did the work and you need that certified too, we can audit it and certify what the evidence supports — see Audits & Certification.
Why it matters
A defect list is a starting point, not a scope.
We work from your existing data to build a staged rectification scope with priorities, rather than pricing every line as if it were equal.
Technical library
Rectification guides.
How do you manage passive fire defects in an occupied building?
Build the programme around the building's operation as well as the technical repair. Group the work by location and access, identify shutdowns and permits early, protect occupied areas, and keep open defects visible until they are closed out.
Scott CunninghamHow do you turn a passive fire defect register into a rectification scope?
Preserve the client's original asset IDs and wording, then group the items by system, observable condition, likely repair pathway, access and evidence quality. A register becomes a workable scope at the point where the repeatable repairs separate from the exceptions.
Scott CunninghamWhat evidence is useful for closing a passive fire defect?
Evidence closes a defect when it connects the original finding to the completed work and to the technical basis relied on. In practice that means the defect reference and its location, photographs before and after, the system used and the evidence behind it, who carried out the repair and when, and any variation from the original method. The exact set varies by system and by contract.
Scott CunninghamWhen can passive fire defects be grouped as repeatable conditions?
Group them only where the assets, the construction and the supported repair condition are genuinely the same. Similar-looking photographs are not enough.
Scott CunninghamQuestions
Frequently asked questions
- Can you price from our consultant's report?
- Often as a first pass, especially where it includes asset references, photographs and a clear defect reason. We may still need site verification or technical review for lines where the actual configuration is not established.
- Do you have to inspect every item again?
- Not every one. How much we need to check on site depends on how good the existing report is and how many of the items are the same problem repeated. We will tell you what we can price from the paperwork and what we have to look at.
- Can you fix defects across doors, penetrations, steel and ducts in one programme?
- Yes — that is the usual shape of the work. Each technical system still follows its own evidence, but the commercial programme groups around sites, access, recurring conditions and common close-out rules.
- Half our register is in a 1970s building. Does that stop the programme?
- No, but it changes the order. Material status is resolved before those lines are priced as repairs, and they are handled as a separate stream from the straightforward work so the rest of the programme keeps moving.
- Can you prioritise the defects?
- Yes. Critical defects go first — the ones that defeat the separation the element is there to provide. After that the order is worked out with you around access, occupancy, trade coordination and what the building can physically accommodate, and your own priorities are recorded alongside ours. We do not apply a generic severity ranking to your register.
Drawings, photos or a defect report in front of you?
Send what you already have. We will tell you what else is needed before the work can be reviewed, priced or booked for site inspection.