RAMS & CPP for Fire Damage Restoration
What compliance documents you need for fire damage repair and insurance restoration work — and how The Site Book handles it for you.
Written by Nicola Dobbie, Founder, The Site BookLast reviewed
TL;DR
- CPP: Required — CDM 2015 applies to every construction project.
- RAMS: Essential — insurers and loss adjusters expect comprehensive RAMS before any work begins on a fire-damaged building.
- Key hazards: Fire-weakened structural instability, toxic smoke residue (PAHs, dioxins, heavy metals), and asbestos released by fire damage.
What compliance do you need?
Fire damage restoration is among the most hazardous construction activities. You're working in a building that may be structurally compromised, contaminated with toxic smoke residue, and potentially full of exposed asbestos. Insurance companies and loss adjusters expect rigorous compliance documentation before any work begins.
Do you need a CPP?
Yes — and for fire damage work, the CPP is critical. It must cover structural assessment before entry, phased works planning, contamination management, asbestos procedures, and emergency arrangements. Insurance companies and loss adjusters will review your CPP before authorising work.
Do you need RAMS?
Absolutely. RAMS are essential for fire damage restoration. Every phase of the work — from initial assessment and make-safe through to strip-out and rebuild — carries significant risks. Your RAMS should be activity-specific and reviewed regularly as conditions change during the works.
Common hazards
- Structural instability — fire-weakened floors, walls, and roofs
- Toxic smoke residue and soot (PAHs, dioxins, heavy metals)
- Asbestos released or exposed by fire damage
- Sharps, broken glass, and unstable debris
- Contaminated water from firefighting operations
- Electrical hazards from damaged and exposed wiring
- Respiratory risks from airborne contaminants
- Working at height in compromised structures
How The Site Book handles it
Describe your project — "fire damage strip-out and restoration, 2-bed flat" — and The Site Book creates your RAMS and CPP automatically. It identifies fire restoration-specific hazards including structural instability, toxic residue, asbestos exposure, and contaminated water.
Frequently asked questions
- Do I need RAMS for fire damage restoration?
- Yes. Fire damage restoration is high-risk work and RAMS are essential. The building may be structurally compromised, there will be hazardous debris and substances (asbestos, smoke residue, burnt chemicals), and the work environment is unpredictable. Insurance companies and loss adjusters will expect comprehensive RAMS before any work begins.
- What are the main risks in fire-damaged buildings?
- The main risks include structural instability (fire-weakened floors, walls, and roofs), exposure to toxic smoke residue and soot, asbestos released by fire damage, sharps and debris, contaminated water from firefighting, electrical hazards from damaged wiring, and respiratory risks from airborne contaminants.
- Do insurance companies require a CPP for fire damage work?
- Yes. Insurance companies and loss adjusters expect full CDM compliance for fire damage restoration. This includes a Construction Phase Plan, RAMS for all activities, and often additional documentation such as asbestos surveys, structural assessments, and environmental reports. Proper documentation protects both you and the client.
What's included at each tier
Starter
£0- Risk Assessments (RAMS)
- Construction Phase Plans (CPP)
- Site inductions
- Worker document signing (no per-signature charge)
Pro
£39/mo or £360/yr- Risk Assessments (RAMS)
- Construction Phase Plans (CPP)
- Site inductions
- COSHH assessments (standalone doc, SDS upload, site-specific register)
- Worker cert tracking and expiry alerts
- Right-to-work evidence records
- Subcontractor tracking
- Toolbox talks
- Worker document signing (no per-signature charge)
- Integrations (Drive, Xero, Zapier)
Business
£199/mo- Risk Assessments (RAMS)
- Construction Phase Plans (CPP)
- Site inductions
- COSHH assessments (standalone doc, SDS upload, site-specific register)
- Worker cert tracking and expiry alerts
- Right-to-work evidence records
- Subcontractor tracking
- Toolbox talks
- Worker document signing (no per-signature charge)
- Integrations (Drive, Xero, Zapier)
- Up to 10 internal team logins
- Site Supervisor: a field-only login for whoever runs the site
- Up to 50 active site portal users
- Site attendance check-in/check-out
- Multilingual worker inductions (9 languages)
- Optional 4-digit PIN for shared-link document sign-off
- Slack Site Ready readiness checks
Site Control
£675/site/mo- Risk Assessments (RAMS)
- Construction Phase Plans (CPP)
- Site inductions
- COSHH assessments (standalone doc, SDS upload, site-specific register)
- Worker cert tracking and expiry alerts
- Right-to-work evidence records
- Subcontractor tracking
- Toolbox talks
- Worker document signing (no per-signature charge)
- Integrations (Drive, Xero, Zapier)
- Up to 10 internal team logins
- Site Supervisor: a field-only login for whoever runs the site
- Up to 50 active site portal users
- Site attendance check-in/check-out
- Multilingual worker inductions (9 languages)
- Optional 4-digit PIN for shared-link document sign-off
- Slack Site Ready readiness checks
- Permanent entrance QR: guest sign-in and contractor self-join
- CSCS credential capture, review and expiry alerts
- Digital induction gating before check-in
- Live people-on-site, attendance and audit-grade exports
- Single sign-on (SSO) with Okta or Microsoft Entra
- Public REST API with scoped account keys
- Signed real-time webhooks into your own systems
Running live sites with subcontractors? Site Control is the per-site enterprise tier above Business — entrance QR sign-in, CSCS checks, induction gating, live attendance and audit-grade exports. From £675/site per month, plus £5,000 setup.
Where it helps and where it doesn't
Pros
- Respirator-rated PPE selection baked into method statements
- COSHH for cleaning and decontamination chemicals ready to pick
- Soot and asbestos contamination control pre-filled
- Structural integrity pre-start check flagged in the wizard
Cons
- No insurance claim documentation template (loss adjuster separate)
- No air-quality monitoring log — sampling reports are uploads only
- Specialist contamination removal still requires licensed contractor
Why The Site Book
- UK construction compliance tool that ships RAMS + CPP + COSHH + inductions (readable and acknowledgeable in 9 worker languages on Business, with the language audit-recorded) + worker sign-off, including optional 4-digit shared-link PIN evidence on Business, plus site attendance, portal users, site files, document reviews, subcontractor evidence and inspections/actions.
- Generate a site-specific RAMS first draft from a natural-language brief in under five minutes, ready for competent-person review - not a template library you hand-fill.
- Controlled document workflow without an enterprise contract: version history and a recorded issue confirmation before a document is shared with a client or downloaded in the app on every plan, re-sign on revision with superseded signatures preserved plus PCPP import, cert tracking and document checking from the £39/month Pro plan - and on Business, optional named-approver routing (a designated approver accepts or rejects each version, with recorded reasons, before it can be issued) plus client approve/reject/request-changes via share links.
- Transparent pricing: Starter £0, Pro £39/month or £360/year, Business £199/month with 10 management logins and 50 active site portal users. Worker document signing has no per-signature charge; project workers count as active portal users while assigned.
- Build RAMS for any trade - add your own work types and method statements alongside the built-in library, reusable across projects, including a ready-made Commercial Solar PV group. Save a finished job as a reusable project template, or clone it, so the next job of the same shape starts from your own setup.
- COSHH goes deep: a standalone COSHH assessment document, upload-a-Safety-Data-Sheet extraction, a site-specific substance register and an expert-reviewed library - plus per-worker RAMS sign-off and a one-click Audit Pack covering documents, sign-offs, worker evidence, attendance, incidents, COSHH, permits and up to the latest 500 live Site Diary entries.
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