DIVISION 28 · FIRE ALARM AND DETECTION
Fire alarm estimating: the device count you will have to defend
Pulls, smokes, horn-strobes, modules, panel and the circuits between them. BidStream proposes the counts on the sheet they came from and keeps every one of them traceable back to the drawing — which is the same thing the authority having jurisdiction will ask you for later.
AI-assisted. Estimator-controlled. Traceable to the plan.
What makes a fire alarm bid different from any other device count?
That the count is not the end of it. The same devices have to survive a plan review, and the gap between what was bid and what the authority having jurisdiction accepts is paid for by whoever counted.
- Notification devices driven by candela and coverage rather than by a symbol repeated on a plan — the same room can need one strobe or three.
- Reflected ceiling plans and floor plans showing devices that do not agree, especially after an architectural revision.
- Circuit and NAC design that changes the panel, the power supplies and the amount of cable long after the device count looked settled.
- Retrofit work where existing devices, existing wiring and an existing panel decide the price more than the new drawings do.
- Monitoring, programming, testing and the final acceptance test with the AHJ — labor that never appears in a device count.
- Interfaces owned by other trades: door holders, elevator recall, duct detectors furnished by the mechanical contractor, shutdowns and dampers.
What BidStream proposes on a fire alarm set
Device proposals on their source sheet
Assisted detection reads the drawing geometry and proposes repeated device symbols for review; a vision pass handles scanned sets. Every proposal is approved or rejected on the sheet it came from, which is also the record you need when someone asks where a count came from.
Measurement on a confirmed scale
Lengths and areas are measured on a scale you confirm per sheet, so circuit and cable estimates come off the drawing rather than off a rule of thumb applied to a device count.
The scope and risk read first
Notes, cover sheet and specifications are read before the takeoff, and what they imply — exclusions, allowances, RFIs, scope that belongs to another trade — is proposed for your estimator to accept or discard.
Uncertainty that stays visible
Scope the model is unsure about is flagged for human review instead of being assumed. On a fire alarm package, an assumption that nobody saw is the expensive kind.
Which exclusions belong on a fire alarm proposal?
- 120V power to the panel, power supplies and booster panels.
- Conduit, back boxes, sleeves and firestopping where the electrical contractor carries the pathway.
- Duct detectors furnished or installed by the mechanical contractor, and the shutdown wiring between trades.
- Elevator recall, door holders and interfaces to systems furnished by others.
- Engineering, stamped drawings and permit fees where they are not explicitly in your scope.
- Monitoring beyond the first term, and recurring software or licensing.
- Work in occupied facilities: after-hours testing, escorts, impairment procedures and fire watch.
- Repairs to existing devices or wiring found defective during a retrofit.
THE QUESTIONS WE ACTUALLY GET
Before you book anything
Our estimator has counted fire alarm devices for twenty years.
And will keep doing exactly that — the approval step is theirs. What changes is the week two bids land together: the proposals arrive already placed on their sheets, so the twenty years of judgment is spent on the ambiguous openings rather than on finding the obvious devices again.
How much setup before it is useful?
You load the PDF set as it was sent and confirm the scale per sheet. There is no device library to build first. Scale confirmation is the one unskippable step, because every measured run depends on it.
Candela and coverage are a design decision. Does the AI do that?
No. It proposes what it reads on the drawing for your review; the coverage and circuit decisions stay with your estimator or your designer. Where the drawing is ambiguous, the scope is flagged for human review rather than resolved silently.
Does the general contractor see my cost or my margin?
No. The shared proposal link shows sell price only; cost and margin do not travel with it. Verified as of October 2, 2026, and re-verified at every release.
Can my estimator override the counts?
Each proposed device is approved or rejected individually, and quantities are adjusted by hand on the sheet. The estimate follows the approved quantity.
Does this replace my takeoff tool?
It covers counting, measuring, markup and the handoff into an estimate and a proposal. Bring a real set to the walkthrough and we will show you exactly where the overlap is and where it is not.
Walk a fire alarm set you are bidding now
Book a 20-minute walkthrough on one of your current bids. Nothing to send beforehand — bring the set you are pricing this week.