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Every page on this site, grouped by what it is for, with a line on each so you can tell them apart. 76 pages in total. If you are looking for something specific and cannot find it here, ring 07927 555475 and ask.

Services

The work itself. Each page covers what the visit includes, the intervals the standard sets, and what goes wrong when it is skipped.

Building types

The same trade, but what is different about your building. Start here if you know the building better than you know the system.

Standards we work to

The documents that decide what has to be done and how often. Useful when an insurer or a fire officer has quoted a code at you and you want to know what it actually says.

Codes explained elsewhere on the site: BS EN 12845, BS 9990.

Guides

16 written explanations of how this equipment works and what the law asks of you. Every technical claim is traceable to a British Standard or to legislation.

Go to the guides hub, where they can be filtered by topic.

Sprinklers

  • Sprinkler servicing intervals under BS EN 12845

    BS EN 12845 sets a weekly check the site can do itself, a quarterly flow switch and alarm test, and an annual service that includes the pump run under flow.

  • How a fire sprinkler system actually works

    Each sprinkler head is held shut by a heat-sensitive glass bulb or fusible link, so only the heads directly over a fire open. The resulting flow drops the pressure in the pipework, which starts the pump and operates the alarm.

  • Sprinklers in warehouses: why racking changes everything

    A warehouse sprinkler system is designed against a specific storage height, storage arrangement and commodity class. Raising the racking, changing what is stored or adding racking under a roof-only design can leave the system unable to control a fire it was never designed for.

  • Sprinkler repairs: leaks, seized valves and damaged heads

    Most sprinkler repairs are corroded pipework, seized or passing valves, impact-damaged heads and failed flow switches, and almost all of them need the affected section isolated, drained, repaired and recommissioned rather than tightened in place.

  • Sprinkler tanks: inspection, cleaning and when to replace

    A sprinkler tank owes a weekly water level check and an annual internal inspection and clean under BS EN 12845. It is replaced rather than repaired when the steel has gone, when a sectional tank leaks faster than it can be patched, or when the building has changed enough to leave the tank too small for the density the system now has to deliver.

Risers

  • Dry riser testing: what BS 9990 actually requires

    A dry riser needs a visual inspection every six months and a full pressure test every twelve months, charged to 12 bar and held for 15 minutes, with a certificate issued against BS 9990.

  • Wet riser or dry riser: which one is in your building?

    A dry riser is an empty pipe charged by the fire brigade on arrival. A wet riser is permanently full of water, kept at pressure by its own pump set, and is used in taller buildings where the brigade cannot pump high enough from the ground.

  • What is a dry riser, and how does it work?

    A dry riser is a normally empty vertical pipe in a building, with a breeching inlet at ground level and landing valves on the upper floors. The fire and rescue service charges it with water from a pump when they need to fight a fire above ground level.

Fire pumps

  • Fire pump testing: why starting it is not testing it

    A start test proves the starter, the battery and the controller. Only a flow test proves the pump delivers its rated flow at its rated pressure, which is the only thing that matters in a fire.

  • Fire pumps: electric, diesel, and what the jockey pump is for

    A fire pump set develops the pressure and flow a sprinkler or wet riser system needs. It normally comprises a main pump driven by an electric motor or a diesel engine, plus a small jockey pump that holds the system at pressure so the main pump does not start on minor leakage.

Compliance

  • Sprinklers in blocks of flats: what the rules require

    In England, new blocks of flats above 11 metres must have sprinklers fitted. Residential systems are designed and maintained to BS 9251, which is a different standard from the commercial BS EN 12845.

  • What your insurer actually wants from a sprinkler system

    Insurers price a sprinkler system as risk mitigation only if they can trust it. LPCB approval of the contractor and an unbroken maintenance record are the two things that make it count.

  • BS EN 12845, in plain English

    BS EN 12845 is the European standard for the design, installation and maintenance of fixed fire sprinkler systems in commercial and industrial buildings. It is the document that sets the weekly, monthly, quarterly, half-yearly and annual routines a UK sprinkler system has to be kept to.

  • When does a UK building legally need sprinklers?

    In England, new blocks of flats over 11 metres must have sprinklers, and Wales requires them in almost all new homes. Beyond those thresholds, sprinklers are required by building control, by the fire strategy, or by an insurer rather than by a single national rule.

  • Choosing, or switching, a sprinkler maintenance contractor

    Check the contractor holds LPCB approval and ISO 9001 for the work you are buying, and that their quotation names the standard and every interval it requires. When you are switching supplier, agree the handover of the logbook, certificates and as-fitted drawings before you serve notice.

Cost

  • What actually drives the cost of sprinkler servicing

    The cost of servicing a fire protection system is driven mainly by how much plant is on it: the number of control valve sets and pumps, and the height and number of the risers. Beyond that it depends on how hard the plant is to reach, the condition it is in, whether the work can be done in normal hours, and how many sites are on the contract.

Areas we cover

18 towns and cities with a page of their own, covering what is built there and what that means for suppression. We travel further than this list; these are where the everyday work is.

See the coverage map, which shows the whole area at once.

The company, and everything else

Cost, system types, our work, and the pages that say who we are and what we hold.

  • What a fire sprinkler system costs

    What actually drives the figure: hazard class, water supply, pipework route, building occupancy and access. No two buildings price the same, so this explains the variables rather than quoting a number.

  • Types of fire sprinkler system

    Wet pipe, dry pipe, pre-action, deluge and residential systems, what each one is for, and which buildings each belongs in.

  • Questions and answers

    The questions we are asked most often on the phone: intervals, certificates, insurer requirements, what a service visit covers.

  • Our work

    Photographs from real installations and service visits: valve sets, pump rooms, tanks, riser inlets and racked pipework.

  • About Sentry

    Who runs the company, how long the trade experience goes back, and how we work. Based in Kettering, covering England, from our base in Kettering.

  • Accreditation

    The certifications actually held, with certificate numbers, and an honest note on what each one does and does not cover.

  • Compliance

    What the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 puts on the responsible person, and where a sprinkler, riser or pump sits inside that duty.

  • Contact

    Phone, email and the enquiry form, plus the hours the office is open and the line that is answered outside them.

  • Book a survey

    The longer enquiry form, for when you already know what you need looking at and want it in the diary.

Legal and policies

  • Company information

    The statutory disclosures: registered name, company number 14247310, registered office and contact details.

  • Privacy policy

    What we collect from an enquiry, why, how long it is kept and who it is shared with.

  • Cookie policy

    Every cookie and third-party frame the site sets or loads, and how to change your choice.

  • Terms and conditions

    The terms that apply to using this website.

  • Complaints

    How to raise a complaint, who reads it, and the timescale for a reply.

For crawlers

The same set of URLs in machine-readable form, generated at build time from the routes themselves so it cannot disagree with this page: sitemap-index.xml. Our crawl rules are in robots.txt. Nothing on this site is blocked to search engines or to AI crawlers.