Fire Alarm Subcontracting for Electrical Contractors and General Contractors
R&D Life Safety Systems works as the fire alarm subcontractor on commercial projects across Massachusetts and New Hampshire — bidding a defined scope, producing the submittal package, installing or supporting installation, and carrying the system through acceptance testing with the AHJ. We work for electrical contractors who need a design-and-programming partner as much as an installer, and for general contractors who need the fire alarm line item to stop being the thing that threatens the certificate of occupancy. Send us the drawings and the spec section, and we’ll send back a scope you can actually hold us to.
What you deal with
The pressures we plan around
The bid documents underspecify the fire alarm scope
Plenty of project sets carry a code-minimum note and a riser diagram drawn before the floor plan settled. Somebody still has to turn that into device counts, panel and power-supply selections, circuit layouts, and a monitoring connection — and if the number in your bid came from a guess, the change orders come out of your margin. We price from a takeoff we can defend, and we flag what the documents leave open before award, not after.
Submittals sit between you and rough-in
Most AHJs in the region want the fire alarm shop drawings, battery calculations, and product data reviewed before they’ll sign off on the permit or the rough inspection. A fire alarm sub who treats submittals as an afterthought puts your schedule in the AHJ’s inbox. We treat the submittal package as a deliverable with a date on it.
Fire alarm tie-ins cut across every other trade
Duct detectors live in the mechanical contractor’s units. Elevator recall runs through the elevator contractor’s controller. Flow and tamper switches belong to the sprinkler contractor, the kitchen hood has its own suppression tie-in, and door holders and dampers are shared with whoever hung them. When those interfaces aren’t assigned to someone by name, they get discovered at the acceptance test. We put the tie-in list on the table at the first coordination meeting.
Wiring problems surface at termination, not at rough
A missed backbox or the wrong cable type is cheap to fix while the walls are open and expensive after paint. When your electricians are pulling the fire alarm wire, we’d rather walk the rough with them — circuit classes, cable spec, box locations, survivability where the design calls for it — than write it all up as a punch list in the final week.
The acceptance test decides whether the building opens
The certificate of occupancy usually waits on a passed fire alarm acceptance test, and the AHJ’s time is not something you reschedule casually. Showing up to that test with untested devices or an incomplete documentation package burns the inspector’s goodwill and your float. We pretest the full system first and bring the paperwork the inspector expects to see.
How we work
What working with R&D looks like
A scope letter you can level bids against
Our quotes spell out inclusions, exclusions, and assumptions in plain terms: who furnishes wire, conduit, and backboxes; who terminates; who programs; whether monitoring, the acceptance test, and closeout documents are in our number. When two fire alarm bids are far apart, the difference is usually hiding in what one of them left out — ours puts it in writing so you can compare like with like.
Submittals and plan review handled as our scope
We produce the shop drawing package — floor plans, riser, sequence of operations, battery calculations, product data — respond to plan-review comments, and keep you copied so you always know where the package stands. What a given AHJ requires varies by municipality and occupancy, so we find out early instead of assuming. Where the project requires engineered, stamped design documents, we coordinate with the engineer of record.
Parts-and-smarts support where the project fits it
On many projects the electrical contractor pulls wire and sets boxes while we furnish the equipment, terminate, program, and test. It is often the most economical split of the labor — but it isn’t the right structure for every job, and licensing and permitting requirements differ by state and municipality. We confirm the arrangement, the division of labor, and who files what on each project before anyone mobilizes.
Coordination that shows up in person
We attend coordination meetings, walk the site at rough, and keep a tie-in list current: which trade provides each interface, which ones we terminate, and what each has to demonstrate at test time. Elevator recall and duct detector shutdown are the two places fire alarm schedules most often slip — we chase those early.
Acceptance testing and closeout done once
Before we schedule the AHJ, we pretest every device and every sequence and correct what we find. At the test we bring the completed documentation — test records, as-installed information, programming records — and afterward we hand over the closeout package for your O&M manuals. The goal is one test, one visit, one signature.
Relevant services
Services for electrical & general contractors
Fire Alarm Installation
Commercial fire alarm installation, panel replacement, and tenant fit-out work in MA & NH. Design coordination through AHJ acceptance. Call 617-207-2777.
Learn more →Commercial Fire Alarm Systems
Commercial fire alarm installation, testing, service, and monitoring for facilities across MA & NH. Call 617-207-2777 — we answer, or we call you back.
Learn more →BDA / ERCES
BDA and ERCES survey, design, installation, and annual testing for commercial buildings across MA & NH. Call 617-207-2777 — we answer, or we call back.
Learn more →Fire Alarm Inspection & Testing
Code-required fire alarm inspection and testing with clear, complete reports for buildings across MA & NH. Call 617-207-2777 — we answer, or we call back.
Learn more →Questions
Frequently asked questions
Can our electricians pull the wire while you handle equipment, programming, and testing?
On many projects, yes — that parts-and-smarts split is common in this region and often the most economical way to build the job. We define the division of labor in writing before mobilization: what we furnish, what your crew installs, where our terminations start, and who is responsible for what at test time. Because licensing and permitting requirements vary by state and municipality, we confirm the arrangement project by project rather than assuming one structure fits everywhere.
How quickly can you turn around a bid or a submittal package?
It depends on the size of the project and the state of the documents, so we won’t quote a blanket turnaround here. What we will do is look at the drawings, give you a date, and hit it — and if something in the documents makes the date unrealistic, you hear that on day one, not the day the package was due. Send the fire alarm sheets and the spec section and we’ll tell you what’s realistic.
What fire alarm platforms can you provide and install?
Our technicians have hands-on experience with commercial fire alarm platforms including Autocall, Notifier, Edwards/EST, Fire-Lite, Silent Knight, Farenhyt, and Simplex. We are happy to talk through your specific panel before we come out. When a spec names a specific platform, we tell you at bid time whether we can furnish it — and if a proprietary system means we’re not the right sub for that project, we say so before award rather than after.
The spec includes a BDA / ERCES scope. Can you carry that too?
Yes. Emergency responder radio coverage requirements are appearing in more project specs across the region, and carrying the BDA scope alongside the fire alarm scope keeps the coverage testing, the equipment, and the fire alarm monitoring tie-in under one sub. Whether a given building needs an ERCES, and to what standard, depends on the municipality and the building — that determination belongs to the AHJ, not to us, and nothing here is a compliance determination for your project. We handle the survey, installation, and documentation that support it.
Will you attend the acceptance test with the AHJ?
Yes — and we won’t schedule it until the system has been fully pretested. Our technicians run the test with the inspector and bring the documentation package the AHJ expects. If the inspector writes up items, we correct them, document the corrections, and coordinate the retest so your closeout keeps moving.
Keep reading
Related pages
Fire Alarm Installation
Commercial fire alarm installation, panel replacement, and tenant fit-out work in MA & NH. Design coordination through AHJ acceptance. Call 617-207-2777.
Learn more →BDA / ERCES
BDA and ERCES survey, design, installation, and annual testing for commercial buildings across MA & NH. Call 617-207-2777 — we answer, or we call back.
Learn more →Fire Alarm Inspection & Testing
Code-required fire alarm inspection and testing with clear, complete reports for buildings across MA & NH. Call 617-207-2777 — we answer, or we call back.
Learn more →Massachusetts
Commercial fire alarm installation, testing, service & monitoring across Massachusetts. Based in Braintree, MA. Call 617-207-2777 — we answer or call back.
Learn more →Inspection Readiness Checklist
How to get a commercial building ready for fire alarm inspection and testing: access, panel clearance, documentation, monitoring. Call 617-207-2777.
Learn more →BDA & ERCES Owner’s Guide
Plain-English guide to BDA / ERCES emergency responder radio coverage: when it comes up, what surveys involve, testing and FCC context. Call 617-207-2777.
Learn more →Send us the fire alarm sheets
Email the drawings and spec section to info@rdlifesafety.com or call 617-207-2777. We’ll tell you what the scope actually contains, what the documents leave open, and exactly what our number would cover. When you call R&D, you reach a person — and if we miss you, we call back.