A fire compartmentation plan shows how a building is divided into fire-resisting compartments, where the fire doors sit, and how the protected escape routes run. Contractors read it before they drill a wall, and a responsible person relies on it to keep a building compliant. Here is what goes on one, and how to draw a clear compartmentation line drawing on an iPhone or iPad.
What a compartmentation plan shows
Compartmentation is the principle of holding fire and smoke inside one area long enough for people to get out and for the brigade to respond. The drawing captures that on a single sheet:
- Compartment lines traced along the fire-resisting walls and floors, colour-coded by their rating - for example 30, 60 or 120 minutes.
- Fire doors at every opening in a compartment line, labelled with their rating (FD30, FD60) so a breach in the line is obvious.
- Protected routes - the corridors and stairs that must stay clear, and the final exits they lead to.
- A clear legend so anyone can read the colours and abbreviations at a glance.
Draw an accurate base plan
Everything sits on the building outline, so start there. LiDAR-scan each floor on an iPhone Pro or iPad Pro and RoomPlot detects the walls, doors and openings automatically, or draw the walls by hand on any device with smart snapping keeping them square. Multi-floor projects let you hold every storey in one file and switch between them, which matters because compartmentation is a whole-building story.
Add the compartment lines and fire doors
RoomPlot gives you the tools to mark this up by hand - and marking it yourself is the point, since only a competent person can decide a wall's rating. Use the line and dashed-line symbols and set their stroke colour to trace each compartment line, keeping one colour per rating. Drop fire door symbols from the 28-strong Fire Safety set at every opening in a line, and add free-text labels such as FD30 or FD60. Zone labels name each compartment and can carry a coloured background, so the areas read clearly.
Tip. Keep one consistent colour key for ratings across every floor of the project - say red for 60 minutes and orange for 30 - and repeat the same legend on each sheet. A plan that colours ratings the same way throughout is far quicker for a contractor to trust on site.
Label the escape routes and export
Trace the protected route with a coloured line or the escape-route arrow, and mark the final exits. Add a banner title so the sheet is unmistakable, then export a single-page A4 PDF or a multi-page branded Report PDF with an auto legend of every symbol used. Need it in CAD? RoomPlot writes DXF that opens in any CAD viewer, so the line drawing drops straight into a wider fire strategy set.
Keep it a living document
Compartmentation only works if the plan stays current. When a wall is altered or a fire door is upgraded, update the plan and re-export - because the drawing lives on your device, that is a five-minute job rather than a call to a draughtsperson.
Fitting out the fire systems too? See our guides on the fire alarm zone plan and the fire escape plan, or browse all our guides. Scan the building once, colour the compartment lines by rating, and hand over a plan a contractor can act on.
